I could not travel both Discuss its connotation and denotation - Essay Example

I could not travel both Robert Frost’s poems always celebrate rationalism and imagination in its maximum range. The poem Road not Taken tells that road that he or she chooses might be right one or wrong, but create differences in poet’s life. Literary critics have identified some autobiographical elements in Road not Taken and they mentioned the fact that Frost’s poem keeps simple external meaning as well a deep and thought provoking inter level meaning. Reader can find both denotative and connotative layers of meaning through different images.

Externally, the poem Road not Taken describes poet’s experience to choose a road which he felt enough comfort to travel. The speaker has no doubt taken the less common road, but he tells us only that it made all the difference, not what that difference was (Little & Bloom 132). Through the brilliant use of metaphor and imagery poet gives the real tension to the mind of the reader. Poet states the reader that when he reaches near the forest the road diverges into two and poet really confuses and after a serious evaluation poet chooses the second one.

Poet reveals his helplessness by saying; “I could not travel both”. Poet is a single person and he cannot walk through both roads at the same time. In connotative way, the two roads mentioned here are two professions. In his youth Frost faced severe emotional conflict in selecting suitable profession; profession of a teacher and the profession of the poet. When the time of selection, poet evaluates both advantages and disadvantages of both professions deeply and both of them haunt him for a long time.

Poet’s dilemma clearly attributes some elements of insecure material existence. Externally, it means poet’s disapproval to travel both roads, while his confusion in selecting suitable profession gives internal meaning. One can relate poet’s thoughts to the uncertainties of modern life and modern man faces serious crisis in taking decisions. Work Cited Little, Michael R., Bloom, Harold. Bloom's How to Write about Robert Frost. Infobase Publishing, 2009. Print.