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This poem is not listed in STPM syllabus
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Poetic / Literary Devices
Structure and Rhythm
This poem consists of four stanzas with five lines each,with a scheme of ABAAB
Figurative Expressions
■ Repetition
• "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" {line 1}
■ Alliteration
• "wanted wear" {line 8}
■ Simile
• "as just as fair" {line 6}
■ Metaphor
This whole poem is a metaphor as Frost uses it to depict the life decisions one have to continually make, as life is a journey
■ Imagery
• "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" {line 1}
• "..bent in the undergrowth" {line 5}
• "..grassy and wanted wear" {line 8}
• "trodden black" {line 12}
■ Anaphora
• "And sorry.." {line 2}
• "And be one..." {line 3}
• "And looked down..." {line 4}
• "it bent.." {line 5}
■ Irony
"I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference." {line 19 - 20}
Stanza 1:
The first stanza implies that the poet are thrown into the position of making choices between possible life situations. The capitalized word, 'TWO', could mean that the poet are beleaguered by two important decisions and the phrase 'yellow wood' suggests that it is autumn and leaves are falling, forming a golden forest path. Autumn points to a slow death as plants starts to wither, leaves fall to the ground and life creeps out of them. Robert brings a different light to the situation, emphasizing it could be a life-threatening or life-changing decisions. The 3rd and 4th line bear the weight of the first two lines as he stood contemplating the path he already has in mind, maybe imagining the future of his current action as Robert claims, 'And looked down one as far as I could'. How the pathway 'bent in the undergrowth' illustrates the future that it holds.
Stanza 2:
The poet chose the second pathway despite his effort to imagine the future of the first pathway behold. The word, 'perhaps', shows that the poet himself is unsure of his decision. He took the chance because it was the choice that most of the people had made but later ponders that both pathway are just equally the same. His action here proves that he is probably comforting himself that both choices are the same and he is not making a wrong step. His insecurity is already hinted in this stanza.
Stanza 3:
The situation the poet is in, shows that the possibilities are not tarnished and are in an acceptable condition for the phrase 'trodden black'. It leaves no unwanted mark so the choice-making is weighing the poet down. The exclamation on how he would keep the other for another day serves as confidence upon his adventure down the pathway he chose. It is ironic as he knew that he cannot turn back the time and doubted if he could ever change things around. Frost highlights the phrase, 'how way leads on to way' , as life keeps going forward from the choices we made.
Stanza 4:
From the last stanza, we know that the poet harbors disappointment and maybe even regret from the decision he took. He feels that the less traveled road have more potential than the one that every one had taken. The poet thought that everything will flow with a different course if he didn't made the choice he chosen. Perhaps, he starts to feel he should not have conformed with the society but live as an individual instead.
Reading Material
"The Road Not Taken" is an ironic commentary on the autonomy of choice in a world governed by instincts, unpredictable contingencies, and limited possibilities. It parodies and demurs from the biblical idea that God is the "way" that can and should be followed and the American idea that nature provides the path to spiritual enlightenment. The title refers doubly to bravado for choosing a road less traveled but also to regret for a road of lost possibility and the eliminations and changes produced by choice. "The Road Not Taken " reminds us of the consequences of the principle of selection in all aspects of life, namely that all choices in knowledge or in action exclude many others and lead to an ironic recognition of our achievements. At the heart of the poem is the romantic mythology of flight from a fixed world of limited possibility into a wilderness of many possibilities combined with trials and choices through which the pilgrim progresses to divine perfection. I agree with Frank Lentricchia's view that the poem draws on "the culturally ancient and pervasive idea of nature as allegorical book, out of which to draw explicit lessons for the conduct of life (nature as self-help text)." I would argue that what it is subverting is something more profound than the sentimental expectations of genteel readers of fireside poetry. . . .
The drama of the poem is of the persona making a choice between two roads. As evolved creatures, we should be able to make choices, but the poem suggests that our choices are irrational and aesthetic. The sense of meaning and morality derived from choice is not reconciled but, rather obliterated and canceled by a non-moral monism. Frost is trying to reconcile impulse with a con- science that needs goals and harbors deep regrets. The verb Frost uses is taken, which means something less conscious than chosen. The importance of this opposition to Frost is evident in the way he changed the tide of "Take Something Like a Star" to "Choose Something Like a Star," and he continued to alter tides in readings and publications. Take suggests more of an unconscious grasp than a deliberate choice. (Of course, it also suggests action as opposed to deliberation.) In "The Road Not Taken" the persona's reasons wear thin, and choice is confined by circumstances and the irrational:
[lines 1-10]Both roads had been worn "about the same," though his "taking" the second is based on its being less worn. The basis of selection is individuation, variation, and "difference": taking the one "less traveled by." That he "could not travel both / And be one traveler" means not only that he will never be able to return but also that experience alters the traveler; he would not be the same by the time he came back. Frost is presenting an anti myth in which origin, destination, and return are undermined by a non-progressive development. And the hero has only illusory choice. This psychological representation of the developmental principle of divergence strikes to the core of Darwinian theory. Species are made and survive when individuals diverge from others in a branching scheme, as the roads diverge for the speaker. The process of selection implies an unretracing process of change through which individual kinds are permanently altered by experience. Though the problem of making a choice at a crossroads is almost a commonplace, the drama of the poem conveys a larger mythology by including evolutionary metaphors and suggesting the passage of eons.
The change of tense in the penultimate line—to took—is part of the speaker's projection of what he "shall be telling," but only retrospectively and after "ages and ages." Though he cannot help feeling free in selection, the speaker's wisdom is proved only through survival of an untraceable course of experience:
[lines 11-20]The poem leaves one wondering how much "difference" is implied by all, given that the "roads" already exist, that possibilities are limited. Exhausted possibilities of human experience diminish great regret over "the road not taken" or bravado for "the road not taken" by everyone else. The poem does raise questions about whether there is any justice in the outcome of one's choices or anything other than aesthetics, being "fair," in our moral decisions. The speaker's impulse to individuation is mitigated by a moral dilemma of being unfair or cruel, in not stepping on leaves, "treading" enough to make them "black. " It might also imply the speaker's recognition that individuation will mean treading on others.
from Robert Frost and the Challenge of Darwin. Copyright © 1997 by The University of Michigan
Bibliography
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/road.htm
http://www.shmoop.com/road-not-taken/stanza-1-summary.html
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section7.rhtml
http://www.gradesaver.com/the-poetry-of-robert-frost/study-guide/section11/
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