Sarah Gledhill
Tara Aiken
English Comp 2
March 25, 2016
The Road Not Traveled

Robert Frost uses his poem The Road Not Traveled to highlight the difficulties of indecision through the use of symbolism, metaphors, and vivid imagery. The Road Not Traveled is a compilation of such devices that allude to a person making a decision, standing on the edge of a forked road peering out at two paths and having to choose one of the two. One road leads to a path most take, and can be considered safer, or reliable; the other being “the one less traveled by,” or, essentially, making his own path outside normal expectations. Robert Frost uses these poetic devices to narrate the moment of indecision that has probably plagued us all at one point or another at some time.

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” begins Frost, as he sets up the setting and theme of the entire poem in just the first sentence. Albeit simple, this single sentence does a lot for the poem, such as indicating to us that a decision needs to be made about which path to take amongst these two roads, while the yellow wood is a powerful descriptor to give us an idea of the setting. The first line speaking of the yellow wood provides us with an idea that it is probably autumn when trees in the wood would begin to turn yellow and die for the winter. The “wood” that is mentioned is a clear symbol for someone’s life, these two paths more than likely being paths the traveler can choose for his own future. Just those two words, yellow wood, give ample detail and context for the following narrative of the poem to work upon further. Frost continues to use various devices like metaphors, symbols, and imagery to paint the whole scene of choosing between two options in vivid detail. Lines such as “In leaves no step had trodden black,” provides us with imagery that could indicate even further a specific setting, which seems to be an autum-esque setting with leaves on the ground, while the wording “steps had trodden black” indicates that the path has been used and stepped on so many times the leaves have turned black. Frost uses a simple, yet effective method to convey large ideas and concepts in simply written lines and stanzas where he uses symbols, metaphors, and vivid imagery to convey ideas that don’t need words to describe.
Frost throws the detail “yellow wood” at the audience before the poem gets too far, and I think the yellow wood is one of the most defining elements of the narrative. The “yellow wood” has a special significance because yellowing trees is an obvious detail to symbolize autumn. That paired with the line where the traveler is stepping over leaves you can easily infer this is taking place in a time where leaves are more likely to fall; Autumn. When you consider Frosts statement,” Somewhere ages and ages hence,” it can indicate that The Traveler is a middle age man just past his prime looking to make a decision about where to go with the rest of his life, and the two paths being set before him. Summer, not just in poetry, but in everything from mythology to classic literature uses the idea of summer to point towards the themes of life and youth. The Traveler is certainly meant to be just past this time of his life where life and youth are the best descriptors and heading to a new section of his life. Ahead of him he can choose the “path less traveled” which one might argue could mean Frost’s choice to become a poet in the first place, or he can choose a path more commonly taken and accepted by others. Frost’s use of yellow can have many meanings but the specificity of yellow seems too obvious and out of place otherwise to not carry significance. At the end of the day “The Road Not Taken” is a narrative of his own indecisiveness.

Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is a narrative of the dilemma of needing to pick between two different paths, the path less traveled, where he creates his own path, or the path that has been taken many times before. To get his point across Frost uses powerful metaphors, symbols, and imagery to guide his poem and turn it into a narrative of the moment of indecisiveness. Frost uses these devices in a simple manner that packs this poem full of details you have to give thought to uncover and truly understand. “The Road Not Taken” is not just a narrative of making a decision, but a narrative of choosing to make you own path over that which may have been placed before you.