Decisions We Make Written About Frost's "The Road Not T
Decisions We Make Written About Frost's "The Road Not Taken"
Sometimes the decisions we make now affect the way our lives end up. In a quote by Ralph Emerson, “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else.” This means that no matter what decisions a person makes, if they have any regrets, they shouldn’t because they have already gained something from it. Robert Frost writes about decisions as well. His poem “The Road Not Taken” exemplifies what he believes a person should think when making a decision. The language and tone that he uses make the reader think beyond what is written and sends him/her a message about the decisions s/he makes; Frost also helps the reader understand what he is trying to point out, through these uses.
“And sorry I could not travel both,” (Line 2) “Oh, I kept the first for another day!”(Line 13) “I shall be telling this with a sigh,” (Line 16); what do we think when we read these lines? They seem very straight forward, but the author is trying to get a message across. When read carefully, these lines almost have a ‘feel’ to them; as if they are talking to the reader themselves. This feeling is created by the tone at which the poem is read. Tone, when used in poetry, can convey strong meanings and set moods for poems. At first site, these lines are simply words strung together with other words, but as we read with feeling, “And sorry I could not travel both,” we almost feel regret; it is as if the narrator is unsure of the decision he has made. Frost is trying to tell the reader that sometimes s/he will also feel this. He is trying to tell us that we should not have regrets. “I shall be telling this with a sigh/…/Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-/I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference,”(Lines 16-20) Frost is saying we should not regret all the decisions we make, instead think of what these decisions have done.
Upon interpretation of this poem, we can gather information and piece it together. Almost every line has two meanings; the one that is relevant to the narrator, and the one that is relevant to us, the reader. Frost uses...