The Road Not Taken - Essay Example

This paper illustrates that the poem observed is a very deep poem, one has to read it over and over again to understand its hidden meaning. Life is really complicated and we need to understand our aim and to do that we need to sit down and introspect. Many a time we come across situations in life where we have to make difficult choices and these difficult choices also decide our future, this poem is all about choosing the road which is less travelled, it also goes to show the courage of the poet who decides to take a path which is less travelled and there is a possibility of him getting lost but he is brave enough to try something different from others.

This is what life is all about, we must be brave enough to trot a path less travelled, it may prove to be a wrong decision or it may prove to be a right decision, it is all about making choices when you are at the crossroads, this is what the poem is all about. At the very end the poet ponders over his choice, his life would have been much different had he taken the other road and this is very true. Our life would also be different had we made different decisions and had we taken the road less travelled, life is all about making the right, the most successful people often make the right choices.

Thesis Statement: The poem has hidden meaning in it; the literal meaning of the poem is very easy to understand. A traveler reaches a fork in the road and is discombobulated because the road shows the traveler two choices, the traveler after much thinking, chooses the road less travelled by people. The figurative meaning of the poem reflects upon the choices that we make in our lives. We can either choose a road which is very frequently chosen by other people or we can choose to walk on a road which is hardly chosen by other people.

After making our choice, we would always have regrets because the road not taken would always force us to think about the endless possibilities. This is what the poem is all about and this poem is really popular, Robert Frost became a household name because of this poem. Literary Devices: Antithesis is quite conspicuous in the poem, the traveler has to make his choice and he soon realizes that he can only choose one path, the traveler wishes he could travel both but soon realizes that this is not plausible.

Another literary device in the poem is personification, the road has been personified. “All sensible people know that roads don't think, and therefore don't want. They can't. But the description of the road wanting wear is an example of personification in this poem. A road actually wanting some as a person would. However: some believe this to be incorrect and believe "wanting wear" is not a personification, but rather older English meaning "lacking". So it would be "Because it was grassy and lacked wear".

The tone of the poem is gloomy, words like “sorry” and “sigh” have been used and these words reflect gloom. Verbal irony is also another figure of speech in this poem, the speaker knows that when he looks back and recollects, he will have to tell his story with a “sigh” and he would also have to throw light upon the differences the second road would have made had he chosen it.