Decisions in Robert Frosts The Road Not Taken Essay -- Analysis Road

Decisions in Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken Throughout our lives we are faced with a number of important decisions, decisions that determine an unseen future. The choices, though often virtually identical, lead to different destinies and often leave us asking "what if?" There are not always signs telling us the way to go or the choice to make; we must find out what lies ahead for ourselves. In his "The Road Not Taken," Robert Frost relates to the reader such a choice, symbolic, perhaps of any major decision in life. The traveler in Frost's poem must blindly decide between two similar paths, and this decision greatly affects his life thereafter. In the opening stanza, Frost takes the reader into a "yellow wood," setting the scene. Both this location and time of year are important in the description of the traveler's decision. The idea of being in a forest brings to mind towering trees and plants blocking everything but the path traveled. This image is a way of showing that even though we all are different, everyone must follow certain guidelines. The traveler then "looked down one [path] as ... ...and it has changed his life. As travelers on paths of life, we come to a number of forks each day, and the directions we choose there shape our unique lives. Sources Cited and Consulted Mike Bellah. "The Road Not Taken." Best Years. Online. World Wide Web. 29 Jul 2004. Finger, L. L. "Frost's 'The Road Not Taken': a 1925 Letter come to Light." American Literature 50. Online. World Wide Web. 20 Jul. 2004. Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." The Poetry of Robert Frost. Ed. Edward Connery, Lathem. New York: Hot, Rinehart and Winston, 1969.