The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

About Robert FrostRobert Frost was born in San Francisco, California, to journalist William

Prescott Frost , and Isabelle Moodie. His mother was of Scottish descent, and his father descended from Nicholas Frost of Tiverton, Devon, England, who had sailed to New Hampshire in 1634 on the Wolfrana.

Frost's father was a teacher and later an editor of the San Francisco Evening Bulletin (which later merged with the San Francisco Examiner), and an unsuccessful candidate for city tax collector. After his death on May 5, 1885, the family moved across the country to Lawrence, Massachusetts, under the patronage of (Robert's grandfather) William Frost, Sr., who was an overseer at a New England mill. Frost graduated from Lawrence High School in 1892.[2] Frost's mother joined the Swedenborgian church and had him baptized in it, but he left it as an adult.

In 1894 he sold his first poem, "My Butterfly: An Elegy" (published in the November 8, 1894, edition of the New York Independent) for $15. Proud of his accomplishment, he proposed marriage to Elinor Miriam White, but she demurred, wanting to finish college (at St. Lawrence University) before they married. Frost then went on an excursion to the Great Dismal Swamp in Virginia, and asked Elinor again upon his return. Having graduated, she agreed, and they were married at Harvard University[citation needed], where he attended liberal arts studies for two years.

The Road Not The Road Not TakenTaken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I

stoodAnd looked down one as far as I

couldTo where it bent in the

undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I marked the first for another day!Yet knowing how way leads on to wayI doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere 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.

By Robert Frost

SummaryOne day, while travelling alone, the poet arrived at a point where two roads diverged. The poet Robert Frost in this lyric ‘The Road Not Taken’ states the reasons he thought feasible, make his choice of one road . It is apparent that he had to make a choice . The poet tried to look down one road as far as he could, to find possible signs or reasons to motivate him to select one of the road.

But he found no such signs except that the road first has been taken by others before him . This signified that, it was one which he could unhesitatingly take ,as it was taken by others before him. There was no doubt, danger or uncertainly about this first road. But on an impulse , he took the second road , the one which had the better claim”. It was a trod and virgin tract.

Both the roads that morning lay covered with leaves which no one had trod on. Frost then maid his decision to leave the first road to be travelled later and took the second road, on that eventful morning. He knew full well that once he began his journey, he would not ever find the time or the opportunity to come back and discover facts about the other road. The fact that he had taken a decision and had chosen to take the second road, is symbolic of the choices one has to make in life. The road symbolize the journey of life, in which man have to make different choices, which are so crucial for him . A lot of things matter, whether it be his success or failure, his happiness or his unhappiness.

Some Literary Works Of Robert

Frost• After Apple Picking.• Home Burial.• Mending Wall.• Bereft.• Asking For Roses.• An Old Man’s Winter Night.