Robert Frost's Poems - Essay Example

Frost’s use of symbolic imagery brings out similarities and differences in both poems. In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, the woods, although beautiful and serene, represent a dark and lonely place away from society and responsibilities. This isolation is tempting and seems to offer peace and quiet but is something no one would want or advise. For example, even the owner of these woods is away in his village on this “darkest evening of the year” (8). The village symbolizes society and civilization and is separate from this lonely, isolated spot so that even the owner won’t know that this visitor was here.

In “The Road Not Taken”, the narrator comes across a fork in the road and is presented with two choices. Both are seemingly the same and there is no sure way to choose the right one, “the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same” (9-10). What matters most is that a choice has to be made. The narrator does, however, spend a lot of time judging his decision (Fagan 295). For example, he looks down one path and analyzes it as best he can, “long I stood /And looked down one as far as I could/ To where it bent in the undergrowth” (3-5).

Also, the narrator realizes that any choice he makes will lead him to other choices and he won’t be able to come back to the first one. In both poems, Frost uses nature imagery to symbolize the journey of life. For example, in “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, the woods represent a place and choice away from society, free from any obligations. Similarly, in the “The Road Not Taken”, the two paths in the woods are symbolic of life’s critical choices and decisions that one has to make (Fagan 295).

Also, the imagery of grass represents the people that have already traveled down that particular path. Both poems also allude to the fact that both narrators have a long way to go and that their journey does not stop at these woods or crossroads of life. For example, in “The Road Not Taken”, the narrator realizes that his choice will lead him to many others and he will look back at this many years from now, “ages and hence” (17). Similarly, the narrator on the horse is drawn back to society and knows he has many miles to go before the end finally comes (Tiempo 51).