Road Not Taken the Theme

¶ … Road Not Taken

The theme of "The Road Not Taken" is about the difficulties we encounter while we make choices in every day life.

The imagery perfectly captures the essence of decision-making with two roads in the woods.

Symbolism plays a significant part in this poem because the images allow us to see what making a choice is like.

Sound is a literary technique the poet utilizes to emphasize the confidence he has in making his decision.

"The Road Not Taken" is a poem rich in imagery that depicts the decision-making process. His confidence allows him to move forward without regret.

Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken," describes a life experience of making a choice by using the analogy of being in a forest and choosing one path over another. Frost uses the literary technique of imagery to illustrate how making choices is much like standing in the forest and choosing between two paths that look almost identical. The sound techniques add texture to the poem because it is easy to read and the poet reaffirms his faith in his decisions in the poem's conclusions. The theme of the difficulty of making choices is depicted perfectly in this poem as the poet takes us down a road that splits, forcing him to choose one way or another.

The theme of the poem is making choices and how we must sometimes make choices based on very little information. The imagery in this poem is a perfect representation of what it is like to make decisions sometimes. We are standing at a place in life, moving along as we should and, suddenly, we are faced with a fork in the road. We must decide on which road to take because staying still is not an option. The roads are almost identical and yet, we must decide. This image in the woods describes the situation with precision as the poet ponders his next steps.

Symbolism becomes an important tool for the poet because the paths in the woods are a perfect example of what making decisions can be like. Each path only goes so far just as we can only guess how things will turn out if we make a certain choice. The poet knows it is impossible to know how things will end up without actually taking the path or making the choice. He understands that it is not possible to be "travel both/and be one traveler" (Frost 2-3) and a choice must be made. We encounter the same circumstances every day. In the forest, the poet looks "down one as far as I could/to where it bent in the undergrowth" (4-5) because he wants something to help him decide. However, he finds nothing that makes making the decision any easier and he hesitates for a moment. This hesitation represents how we can be afraid to act sometimes. The poet is forced to make his choice merely by how each path looks. The trees down each path are of "yellow wood" (1) and, unfortunately, they are "really about the same" (10). This situation symbolizes how some of the choices we make are based solely on how a certain situation may "look" because we have no other information.

Sound is a literary tool the poet uses in the poem. An example of alliteration occurs with the words long, lay, yellow, looked, travel, traveler, all, grassy, passing, really, telling, and equally. Repetition is another technique the poet employs. Consonance can be seen with wood, stood, could, fair, wear, there, lay, day, way, sigh, I, by, back, and black. The sound devices allow the poem to flow smoothly when being read and used as well. We can look at the ease of this poem as a signal from the poet that he is at peace with the choices he has made in his life. This notion is also reinforced with the last lines of the poem when the poet states "I took the one less traveled by, / and that has made all the difference" (19-20). The poet is suggesting that we should never regret the choices we make in life because we cannot go back. Since we can never know what might have happened had we chosen another road, we should not bemoan choices that we have made.