Have a question? eNotes editors are standing by to help you.
1 Answer | add yours
violaazad,
This popular Frost classic delights the reader’s rhythmic senses with an incredibly simple A-B-A-A-B rhyme scheme. The message is clear and inspirational. The speaker considers two paths, and chooses one. The tone is nostalgic for the moment of choice that has long since past, having relished the anticipation of the experience and the contemplation at the place where the roads divided in the woods.
The broader symbolic implications are, of course, for more than a walk in the woods. The poem encourages individuality, confidence, and a no-regrets attitude.
Despite the ambiguity that surrounds the poet’s intent, the poem succeeds. The two roads are aptly symbolic of the choices we have to make almost every day of our lives.
Still, perhaps the poem’s essential playfulness is evident in the dramatic “sigh” with which the speaker expects some day to talk about his choice, and in the portentousness of the last line, which seems a bit exaggerated considering that the two roads were “really about the same.”
This classic poem is so often misunderstood as incorrectly being about a road "less-travelled."
Join for free to answer this question
Join a community of thousands of dedicated teachers and students.
Already a member? Sign in » JOIN eNOTES
Key The Road Not Taken Questions
See all »Top Tags in The Road Not Taken
See all »Related Questions
- Justify the title "The Road Not Taken."
- What is the message that Robert Frost wants to convey through the poem "The Road Not Taken"?
- What does the poem The Road not taken by Robert Frost,I wandered as Lonely as Cloud,by Willam Worfdworth,Traveling Through the dark by Willam Stafford have in common?
- What does the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost,Traveling Through the dark by William Stafford has in common?
Following The Road Not Taken
See all »Editor Emeritus, Debater, Expert, Educator, Whitman, Poe, Dickens, The Bard
359,318 points
Distinguished Editor, Debater, Expert, Educator, Dickens, The Bard, Churchill, Einstein
630,302 points
Editor Emeritus, Debater, Expert, Educator, Scribe, Whitman, Poe, Dickens, The Bard, Churchill
240,141 points






