The Road Not Taken Explication

Conor O’Neill
Honors English
5/23/09
“The Road Not Take” Explication

“The Road Not Taken” is one of Robert Frost’s most famous works of poetry. Not only is this one of Frost’s most famous works, it is also one of his most difficult to decipher. “The Road Not Taken” is all about the choices that people have to make in their lives, and then moving on and living with these choices. The reason that I say it is one of his most difficult poems to decipher is because of the fact that he portrays two roads (quite obviously representing his life choices) and then he has to pick a road. This can be and has been interpreted as many different things over the years; I stoically believe, however, that it represents Frost’s life.
This poem by Frost contains four different stanzas’, each of which shows the progression of the poet’s dilemma. In the first stanza of the poem, Robert Frost describes the position that he finds himself in; as he goes out for a walk, he finds himself stuck between the choices of taking two different paths. He would like to try and go down both of these paths, however, knowing that he cannot, he stands looking down both of the paths. In the second stanza of the poem, Frost decided that he will take the path that seems to have seen less wear. In reality, as he states later in the same stanza, both appear to been worn about the same. Frost might be saying here that people like to be “one-of-a-kind” with the lifestyles that they have, but in reality, everybody is alike in one way or another. Then, in the third stanza of the poem, Frost continues to deliberate about the differences between the two paths. He states that both of them have freshly fallen leaves that look like they have not been walked on. ““It’s leaves no step had trodden black”. In this line, Frost seems to say that people are born without corruption, but their lives will become corrupt the more people they encounter.
Another element of non-conformity that can be found in this poem is in the fourth stanza. The last word of the entire poem is difference; the mere fact that this is the last word of the poem suggests Frost’s support of non-conformity. One of the trickiest parts upon further inspection of the poem is whether to take the “difference” at the end of the poem as positive or not. The reason why this is made into such a difficult aspect of the poem is because of the word “sigh” that is used several lines earlier in the same stanza. We, the readers, do not know if the sigh is a peaceful and nostalgic sigh, or a sigh of discontent and regret. It is assumed, however, that these two words are positive in the poem because of the dramatic tone shift that happens in the third stanza with the exclamation point at the end of the following line: “Oh, I kept the first for another day!”. What most people do not pick up on, however, is the two lines that come after. “Yet knowing how way leads on to way/ I doubted if I should ever come back”. This is the point that makes the poems intentions at the end almost impossible to perceive. The tone of the poem shifts dramatically back and forth in a matter of three lines. This is also what makes this poem so special and enjoyable to the audience.
Like many of Robert Frost’s pieces of poetry, “The Road Not Taken” is very aesthetically pleasing. It follows a very strict rhyme scheme which enhances the sound of the poem when being read. “The Road Not Taken” also follows a strict meter. The beats per line remain fairly constant throughout the entire poem which acts to enhance the poem even more. But even more than what the poem exudes as a piece of art, “The Road Not Taken” teaches people an important lesson. Frost teaches people in this poem that it is okay to stray from the beaten path. He says that you can go and do something new and if that fails, your old life, your old path, will always be there.