The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

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What is the summary of "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost?

violaazad

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Posted by violaazad on June 10, 2009 at 9:28 PM and tagged with summary

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epollock

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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."

Posted by epollock on June 10, 2009 at 9:57 PM

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