"He gives his harness bells a shake / to ask if there is some mistake." The horse's action portrays the tendency of people to question those choices they don't understand. This scene can be interpreted as the disapproving voice of society voicing its demands on those of a more sensitive bent.
In much the same vein as the previous stanza, Frost shows a depth of human understanding (and misunderstanding). Our motives are ours alone, and try as we might, we cannot truly understand another.
Frost concludes the poem by commenting on the nature of obligations and they role they play in our choices. "The woods are lovely, dark and deep / but I have promises to keep / and miles to go before I sleep..."
While the author expresses his desire to linger amongst the magnificent forest and rest awhile, he must push on due to his obligations. Contrary to his true wishes, he trudges on in the night. In the same way, we are all bound by responsibilities to do what is required of us instead of what we want.
In "The Road Not Taken," the author describes the pondering that ensues as he considers which path to take when the road before him forks. The entire essence of the poem is neatly distilled into the final stanza. "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- / I took the one less traveled by, / and that has made all the difference." This is probably the most famous quotation of Frost's. Frost expresses how the choices we make contribute to our direction in life- who we are as people could be perceived as the sum of our choices. It is interesting to note that while the author says that his choice to travel the less-frequented path has "made all the difference', he neglects to say whether that difference was for the positive...
Robert Frost -- Life Issues and Parallels to My Life A Life Filled with Tragic Inspiration Robert Frost was a prolific American writer and poet whose work captured the difficulties some of the most challenging periods in modern American history as well as his personal trials and tribulations. Frost's work is known for the eloquence that he was able to express using the simple language of common colloquial speech (Holman & Snyder,
Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" tells the story of a traveler making the decision to travel the road less traveled, but looking back upon the road not taken and wondering what might have been. On first glance the reader might assume that Frost is touting the benefits of taking the road less traveled, or the path in life that is perhaps most unclear. Too many people assume that the
Robert Frost treats several themes in his short lyrical poem, "The Road Not Taken." First, Frost focuses on the notion of choice and decision: the narrator is faced with a fork in the road and must choose which path to take. He momentarily wishes that he could travel both paths at once and still be "one traveler," (line 3). After hemming and hawing, the narrator chooses the path less trodden.
The last stanza is the protagonist's projection of what he thinks the future will hold. He imagines himself relating this day with a sigh to another, and letting them know that when he came to the fork in the road he took the road less traveled, and that made all the difference. We must remember two things the author said, first it is the story of his friend, Edward Thomas, and
Kidd. The poet's journey toward the night, his familiarity with the night, both represents the poet's search for "complete self-knowledge" and his willingness to explore unknown - again, mysterious - territory. In the second stanza, Amano conjectures that Frost is putting the persona into the reader's consciousness in the form of a denial of others. The "watchman" is the only other human in this poem, of course, but beyond that,
Frost's poem mirrors the Biblical Fall story. The narrator explicitly states that he "let it fall and break," just as Eve let herself break down and eat from the tree of forbidden fruit (line 13). The narrator also notes, "But I was well / Upon my way to sleep before it fell," (line 15). He had already begun to lose consciousness, to succumb to desire and dreaming. Thus the
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