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How does "The Road Not Taken" reflect Robert Frost's label as a New England poet?
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"The Road Not Taken" reflects Robert Frost's label as a New England poet through its themes of nature and individualism, common in New England literature, despite being written in England. The poem's setting—a fork in a wooded path—evokes the natural beauty typical of New England landscapes. Frost's simple, clear language and symbolic depth align with the style of New England poets like Thoreau and Emerson, engaging readers in the narrator's reflective journey.
This is a tricky question, as Frost wrote this poem in England in 1915, after having lived there for three years. The poem is based on rambles in England that Frost took with his English friend Edward Thomas. Frost published the poem after he was back in the United States, in 1916.
So, although Frost is associated strongly with New England, and especially the state of Vermont, this poem is problematic as a "New England" poem. However, a poem does not have to be written in or about New England to share attributes with other New England literature.
Like other New England writers, including Thoreau, Emerson, and Dickinson, Frost celebrated both nature and individualism. These traits can be seen in this poem. The setting is a simple, natural environment: a fork in a road in the woods that offers two paths forward, each going in a different direction. The woods...
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are generic and universal enough that we could imagine them in New England.
Common characteristics of New England poets and their poetry abound in "The Road Not Taken."
Many of the poets from this area loved the natural world and made use of the beauty of the area in creating settings and situations for their writing. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" - in that short phrase, you know where you are, what season of the year it is, and what the conflict to be explored is.
The language of the poem is simple and heartfelt. There are no elaborate descriptive phrases, no complicated terminology; the text is crisp and clear but loaded with symbolism for those who wish to find it.
The reader, at the end of the poem, understands the narrator's dilemna and shares in the frustration or regret expressed.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
The ability to draw the reader into the situation and enable him/her to come to deeply identify with the narrator marked the New England poets' writing style.