Question

(2) What was the poet confident of?

Poem name - When I Set Out For Lyonnesse ​

Answer 1

Explanation:

The most common interpretation of the poem "The road not taken" is its inadvertent indication towards the crucial choices that every human being comes across at some point of time. This makes the title a metaphor for the crossroads one faces in life. Accordingly, the speaker claims that he has taken the road less traveled by( although, earlier in the poem the speaker implies that both the roads were equally travelled). The poem's last line " and that has made all the difference " asserts the speaker's confidence in the choice he has made. His only faint regret would be that he would not be able to travel both roads, though underlying his confidence in his chosen path. Therefore, we could say that he hardly exhibits any feelings of regret.

But Robert Frost claimed that his audiences had taken the poem with much more depth,intensity and attributions than he had intended. Apparently, Frost wrote this poem for his close English friend, Edward Thomas with whom he took many walks while he resided in England (1912-1915). It was meant to be a subtle mockery of the tendency of indecision of Edward Thomas, particulary of the roads to take during their walks together. Not just Frost's audiences but even Thomas seems to have taken in the serious mode of the poem. The poem's gist in Frost's own words is that, " whichever way they go, they are sure to miss something good on the other path". According to this interpretation, the speaker's indecision and his inevitable pessimistic attitude towards taking only one of the roads and missing the other indicates a strong sense of 'regret'. Thus the speaker here is regretting his dilemma.