Looking at Poem Analysis Essay

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George on "The Road Not Taken" by American poet, Robert Frost, is accurate in its capturing of the presence of 3 ages associated with the persona in the poem. A number of contradictions are included in this analysis, pertaining to the poem's time frame. This essay will explore the poem's analysis in terms of selecting the appropriate path to be taken in a given life event, while being aware of how paths lead to other paths. One has to realize that choices dictate life, and hence, should choose wisely, as a decision once made is not easy to reverse. Robert Frost's widely-known poem, The Road Not Taken, portrays life's journey. This paper will briefly summarize the poem, analyzing its key themes.

Choosing appropriate paths

Indication of two roads (line 1)

Analyzing both paths (line 4)

c. Decision to choose one path (line 5)

d. This path needed discovery as it was less travelled (line 8, 20)

Choices dictate life

a. Road less travelled was chosen (line 17, 19)

b. The Choices made led to Disappointment (line 16)

c. Going back to the path travelled by most (line 15)

d. This less-travelled path has changed his life (line 20)

Analysis

One among the most popular and familiar of Robert Frost's poems is "The Road Not Taken." It comprises of four five-line stanzas, with each line having eight to ten syllables, existing in an almost iambic rhythm. Every stanza's lines rhyme according to the A-B-A-A-B pattern. The poem's popularity is mainly on account of its simple symbolism: while walking through a wood, the narrator is faced with a choice between two diverging paths; he "metaphorizes" this choice as a choice between the divergent paths one comes across in life's journey.

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Nevertheless, for this seemingly simple piece of poetry, different interpreters have adopted different views as to how the narrator feels with regard to his situation, as well as what view readers must take, in relation to him. In the year 1961, the poet himself remarked that this poem of his is very tricky indeed (Jason).

Marinaro states that this poem isn't merely about somebody trying to arrive at a decision as to which path he must take on his stroll. It actually alludes to life's journey. The two "diverged" roads in the "yellow wood" indicate one's life. The speaker's choice concerning the path to be taken signifies the different choices one must make and their impact on our future. If one thinks of the phrase, 'down the road', applied typically to describe anything that may transpire in the near or distant future, one can see how the poet is connecting traveling to life (Marinaro).

The poem is written in "first-person," raising doubts of whether its narrator is Frost himself or some character he created for this particular poem. Lawrence Thompson, in his biography of Robert Frost, titled, Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph (1971) writes that the poet would frequently introduce this poem to the public by commenting that he based its narrator on Edward Thomas, a Welsh friend of his. Frost states that Thomas was an individual who, when faced with alternatives, would always feel sorry that he did not….....

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