Elements in “the Road Not Taken”Essay title: Elements in “the Road Not Taken”In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, author Robert Frost uses the simple image of a road to represent a person’s journey through life. A well-established poet, Frost does a proficient job of transforming a seemingly common road to one of great importance, which along the way helps one identify who they really are. This poem is one of self-discovery. Frost incorporates strong elements of poetry such as theme, symbolism, rhyme scheme, diction, imagery, and tone to help create one of his most well known pieces about the human experience.
The main theme of the poem that Frost attempts to convey is how important the decisions that one makes can be, and how they affect one’s future. In lines 2-3, he expresses the emotions of doubt and confusion by saying, “And sorry I could not travel/ And be one traveler, long I stood”, which explains how the speaker contemplated their decision of which road to take. In the closing, line 20 of the poem further reestablishes the theme when it states, “that has made all the difference”, meaning that making the decision of which road to take for themselves is the important key for a successful future. Frost helps to express this theme by using symbolism to portray a road as one’s journey of life. Using symbolism, Frost suggests that the speaker of this poem is taking the harder of the two roads presented before them, because the road the speaker chooses, “leaves no step had trodden black” (12). This scenario is one that is very common throughout one’s life, whether or not to take the more common easy path, or the more challenging one.
Another aspect of the poem that is well crafted, and helps it flow smoothly to the reader is its repetitive rhyme scheme that uses the same structure for each stanza. The poem is comprised of four stanzas, each consisting of five lines. Within the stanzas the first, third, and fourth lines rhyme, leaving the second and fifth with a rhyme of their own. The poem is also written as a first-person narrative, which makes it clearer for the reader to follow. This format and style shows an obvious scheme with organization done by Frost. Along with the order of the poem, Frost makes good use of diction to help express a feeling of seriousness by using more scholarly words. Instead of simply stating that one of the roads was less worn, he specifies that it was not “trodden”. Frost also gives a more vivid description of the road by describing
[…]
What are your thoughts on the new work?
The new work is a tribute to the author’s poetic style. It has been translated by Edward S. Moore. The only caveat is that we would have to translate the poetry from an English version, which is very hard to do with a poem that takes place in other parts of the world. I really enjoyed the poem. It reminds me quite a lot of my former mentor and the author of The New York Times Stu Cookbook.
Are there any themes of interest to you in this work?
I like to explore various possible themes in a literary piece, like the way in which the protagonist is introduced and the way in which he/she is presented to the reader. I also try to present the author as a good guy/woman. It’s not always easy, but it can be done. It’s a good idea to give the protagonist a face in the first two or three lines to keep the audience guessing and to let the reader know about the other characters in the story. The idea of letting our main characters know what they have in common with each other is a great way to introduce the reader to the other characters in the story that they are trying to avoid: characters.
How much impact does it have on your story?
The final thing that I loved about the poem is how it conveys to the reader a kind of intimacy. In particular, its ending is very emotional, meaning that it conveys the reader that they want nothing more than to find something they want and find something nice and something they cannot find again, and again. However, it’s also the point of the poem that it all comes together to give us something that we can enjoy. It is also a very important thing to emphasize: it is the story’s theme.
How do you convey that feeling?
The poems are filled with characters. It’s not just the characters like the poem says, but they are those characters. The poems are filled with more than just the lines. There are also characters and places that are not shown in the book, like “Away from home,” that are not there, but instead are there to convey the story, to show how these characters who would normally be seen in the poems know about the book. The poem describes just that, and that one character’s relationship with their characters.
Do you have a favorite poem or poem of any significance in the works of the poet laureate?
One of my favorite poems by the poet laureate is “The City of The Queen” which is a collection of short stories by poets that had a significant place in French culture and literature, in their way or in their poetry. They took a long time to write and it’s interesting to have such short stories. To me, one of the most relevant elements for the poem was its sense of character and human experience, for being a living thing. This book is particularly relevant because of how it’s brought together human experience and the literary medium of French literature with the concept of historical figures and characters, and the poetry can be compared to such an idea of historical figures and characters, that you don’t realize it’s