A Leading Path of Quotations

As I curate a set of quotations from Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” there are three familiar quotations that when read in sequence, begin In medias res and take readers down a thought-provoking path of plot.

Frost begins the poem with “Two roads diverged” to immediately seize our attention and create enough suspense to inspire further reading.  We wonder what two roads he is speaking of  and where each road will lead.  We can see the traveler (protagonist) must make a decision and we wonder how he will handle that situation.  

So Why Do I Care?

 

What has persuaded me to believe it actually matters that I write a paper about the effects of Frost’s poem, "The Road Not Taken?"  Since I first heard this poem long ago, it has given me greater appreciation for caring about the choices I make in my life. 

Ambiguous and Contrary Road

A casual reading has the effect to inspire readers to take the “road less traveled” which has generally been interpreted as the more difficult road.  Frost supports the traveler’s decision with a seemingly positive outcome by telling us that his choice has made all the difference.   Even though we have no idea what that difference might be, we are left to believe we will somehow benefit from taking the less traveled road. 

A closer reading reveals some contradictions that somehow lie dormant until we take time to analyze the effects of Frost’s inconsistencies.  I am intrigued enough to want to try to determine what message Frost is sending to readers that at first seems so clear but then turns out obscure.  It just might be that it is the contradictions and ambiguity of the poem that makes it so well loved by many people. 

This is the reason I am analyzing and writing a paper on the poem.

Identifying Dimensions of the Road

As I build my thesis from a combination of my evaluation and the cause/effect claims, along with the comments from scholarly friends, I will explore the effects of the contradictions and ambiguity in Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken” for my final paper.

 What was Frost intending for us to feel as we read how a certain conflicted traveler chooses one equally worn road over another and then contradicts himself by stating one road seems better suited, “because it was grassy and wanted wear.”  This leaves the reader to wonder what could have enticed the traveler to choose one road over the other.   Was it just a hunch or whim he has or is there some visible reason such as the intriguing way the sunlight filters through the underbrush that prompted his decision?  We do not know, because Frost doesn’t tell us.  He does tell us he kept the first road for another day, only to say the traveler doubts he will ever again find himself at that particular cross road.

And why is he telling this way off in the future. . .and with a sigh?  Does this mean he is feeling regret for not having taken the first road or is it regret that because he is just one traveler he is unable to travel both roads simultaneously?  We do not know the answer to this because again, Frost does not tell us, or does he?  What he does tell us is that the road he took has made “all the difference.”  The ambiguity intensifies here as we wonder what that difference might be.  Each reader is left to speculate and fill in the blank to resolve the meaning of the poem.  Which is the reason the poem has such wide appeal.