The Road Not Taken Poetry Exp. - 983 Words

Poetry Explication: â€Å"The Road Not Taken† By Robert Frost The four time Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Robert Frost, is well known for his picturesque portrayal of rural lifestyle, focusing mainly on the New England region of the United States. â€Å"The Road Not Taken†, published in 1916 is one of his earliest written and most highly praised works. It is considered a masterpiece of American Literature and its content is frequently studied by high school and college students to this day. The poem is a closed frame narrative type consisting of four stanzas with a rhyme scheme of ABAAB. While being the most popular of the numerous poems written by Robert Frost, it has also been one of the most misinterpreted and openly interpreted poems of his†¦show more content†¦This is a perfect metaphor for the many crossroads that people face in day to day life and how, depending on character, we choose our way. Also, just because one is walking the same path as someone else doesn’t mean there footsteps will land in the same places. Figuratively speaking, the trail is always wider than our bodies so there is always room for one to put their own spin on anything. Even if the trail you are walking has been trampled on, you can still make it your own â€Å"road less travelled† and that will make â€Å"all the difference†. The tone of this poem is what makes it so openly interpreted. It can be used as motivation for almost any path one decides to take in life. The verse â€Å"Yet knowing how way leads on to way/ I doubted if I should ever come back† can be related to by anyone who has ever experienced having to make crucial decisions in life. Life is not easy, and it is not worth our precious time to be whimsical in our decision making. Nobody wants to have to backtrack, and this poem portrays that rigorous ‘keep your head forward, shoulders back and your eye on the prize’ mentality that has been part of our culture as Americans for so long. These two very salient lines of the poe m also do well to instill an element of mystery and air in the mind of the reader. It is human nature to think what could have been ‘if only I’d done this’ or ‘If that never