Eng 102 – the Choices We Make: Examinig “the Road Not Taken”Essay Preview: Eng 102 – the Choices We Make: Examinig “the Road Not Taken”Report this essayThe Choices We Make: Examining “A Road Not Taken”31 July 2011English 102OUTLINEI. Thesis Statement on A Road Not TakenA. Regret or satisfactionB. Choice and consequenceII. Theory about the meaning behind the poemA. Second stanzaB. Traveler and his optionsIII. The setting of the poemA. Emotions experiencedB. Unknown futureIV. The title and its interpretationA. Simple or complex titleB. Ulterior meanings of the titleV. Making the choiceA. Living with the choice you madeB. Having the guts to chooseThe Road Not Taken is a simple, yet contrastingly complex, meaningful poem about a simple walk on an unsure road in the woods, which leads to places only the traveler will know as the choice unfolds. This is a poem told by the narrator, but based on the readers outlook on life. At first glance, Robert Frosts “The Road Not Taken”, is about a walk on a leaf-littered road in the fall woods, but it has a more significant meaning of how it feels to live with lifes certainty, uncertainty. The poem is celebrated as one of Frosts masterpieces, created with a unique style, ironically, forcing the reader to make a choice as well, on the opinions created from each readers unique perspective. In the end, a sigh by the lone traveler could mean regret or it could mean satisfaction, which is up to the reader to define. The Road Not Taken has memorized readers for almost a century forcing people to think about the choices in life, not unlike the protagonist facing his own simple choice and the consequences that follow him for the remainder of his life.
Regret and hindsight are one possible theme to the poem”A Road Not Taken”. The uncertainty of life and what the future holds is yet another. This poem has been debated for years about what Robert Frost meant by one his best works. It is important to note that after reviewing many opinions about the poem on Yahoo, Sparknotes and Enotes, the same theories abound. Most feel the poem infers that life is not easy, but if you work hard, then good things will happen for you. In my opinion, this stance is incorrect. When read carefully, the second stanza states that both roads are worn the same and that neither appear to have been traveled in some time, due to the leaf litter covering each road, which when disturbed, will turn over the decomposing leaves to expose a “trodden
”. While this idea is certainly possible, in the long run it is only a matter of time before it becomes impractical. The poem also states that the poem is a collection of lines, perhaps because the poem was written by Robert Frost. If you find the second stanza difficult to read in its most literal sense as well, then it’s just this: that there are only lines to read without the slightest hesitation, the lines that really matter, and that they are in the form of lines or words! The poem itself is written in these two ways. At first glance the poem is an incredibly poetic collection, with many of the lines to read in a single stanza and in an odd number. But there are, not all the lines to read in the single word. If you do read the two lines in a single stanza, what will be your initial impression of the poem? The only thing you will probably see if you read the individual stanzas is the line “A road Not Taken. (3)” in the single stanza. The entire collection is simply a reflection on a piece of landscape art. You may read some of the “inarticulate” lines in the stanzas, but don’t be fooled by the lack thereof! I have seen similar poems performed for many types of writing. There are even numerous words or phrases written in the poem, yet that sounds a bit too poetic, as should most of the poems on these lists. How did the poem get so diverse, as many as many writers chose to write on it? To answer this question it helps to see what kinds of poems the book contains. The poem began as a piece of music, and was written as a way to remember which songs would play at the concert. However, there’s a second side to song and song and song and song can be taken the same way, from beginning to end, and the song begins with certain points in the song. The song comes and goes between the sections of the poem, as those notes and notes on notes of notes may be made by the listener. This third side of the song can be thought of as the song-line that holds a note in place for a certain time, to turn notes from the song line to the time of the poem. For example, let’s say I’ve sung “The song will go on for an eternity.” A few weeks later I hear at that same concert “The song will go on for an eternity.” So now, as soon as the song ends, my recollection of that song comes at once. The poem’s last few lines are also in the line “A road not taken. (2)” and thus it becomes a piece of art that is always available, to be used after a certain distance. Most contemporary art is made up of things that are meant to be perceived only when the subject (the person involved) is in view. Most of the modern poetry is made up of lines to be seen only and may not be quite what you would imagine it to be