![]() ![]() He feels that it is full of grass and less trodden. The speaker takes the other road that seems fair and better. Stanza II – The Road Not Taken – Summary & Analysis The word “undergrowth” is a representation of the unknown meaning that what lies beyond the known knowledge is uncertain. This results in trying to judge the situation as far as possible similar to the speaker who looks at one road as far as the eye permits. ![]() The deep insight into the understanding of the road resembles the quandary of people in situations where they cannot “travel both” and stick to one path. The dilemma of the speaker in the poem is simple and is revealed early. The reader gets to know from the following stanzas that the season is autumn as there are leaves all over the road. Robert Frost uses the term “yellow wood” to describe the American setting he uses so often in his poems. He looks down one road till the eye permits and witnesses a bend that dissolves with the undergrowth. He knows that it is impossible to travel both being one individual and stands in the middle analyzing the condition. The poet travelling in the forest during an autumn comes to a point where there is a fork, leading to two different paths. Stanza I – The Road Not Taken – Summary & Analysis The poem is narrated by a speaker who is thinking of the past and the decision he has to take while travelling through woods one day. The young minds immediately connect to The Road Not Taken as it represents them while taking unknown decisions. The four stanza poem has inspired and stirred many minds in the world. It is no embellishment if anyone claims that this particular poem is amongst the world’s most read and taught one. The Road Not Taken published in the year 1916 is one of his finest accomplishments as a poet. What a delightfully meta realization to understand in adulthood that I was wrong all along.The poet laureate of Vermont, Robert Lee Frost, is a Universal figure known for his sense of rural setting and using them to touch the social side of mankind. I remember reading this poem in high school and, at a surface level, believing it represented all the best parts about American individualism. “The Road Not Taken” may be, as the critic Frank Lentricchia memorably put it, “the best example in all of American poetry of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” But we could go further: It may be the best example in all of American culture of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The poem isn’t a salute to can-do individualism it’s a commentary on the self-deception we practice when constructing the story of our own lives. The two roads are interchangeable.Īccording to this reading, then, the speaker will be claiming “ages and ages hence” that his decision made “all the difference” only because this is the kind of claim we make when we want to comfort or blame ourselves by assuming that our current position is the product of our own choices (as opposed to what was chosen for us or allotted to us by chance). The poem’s speaker tells us he “shall be telling,” at some point in the future, of how he took the road less traveled by, yet he has already admitted that the two paths “equally lay / In leaves” and “the passing there / Had worn them really about the same.” So the road he will later call less traveled is actually the road equally traveled. ![]() Most readers consider “The Road Not Taken” to be a paean to triumphant self-assertion (“I took the one less traveled by”), but the literal meaning of the poem’s own lines seems completely at odds with this interpretation. įrost’s poem turns this expectation on its head. It’s worth pausing here to underscore a truth so obvious that it is often taken for granted: Most widely celebrated artistic projects are known for being essentially what they purport to be. ![]() This is the most remarkable thing about “The Road Not Taken”-not its immense popularity (which is remarkable enough), but the fact that it is popular for what seem to be the wrong reasons. Here’s David Orr, writing about “The Road Not Taken” for The Paris Review in 2015: Here it is in its entirety:ĭespite its popularity, it is also one of the most widely misinterpreted poems. Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” is one of the most popular poems of the 20th century. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |