write a critical commentary on the poem the road not taken
Answers
The poem seems to underline the importance of making choices in our life and the way they affect us in future. Some may prove beneficial and some may not, but one cannot have two ways of life. The poem thus upholds the universal truth that life is, after all, an exploration.
Stanza 1
In the first stanza, the poet by presenting before the reader a unique situation involving himself confronted by “Two roads,” highlights how twists and turns are an unavoidable reality of life and that choices are absolutely necessary.
Stanza 2
The entire task of making choices is, however, extremely difficult and requires much speculation. Thus, even though the poet selects the road that is grassy, he seems doubtful of his selection immediately afterward, thereby pointing towards the fact that life can be utterly unpredictable at times.
Stanza 3
The untrodden appearance of the path he has not taken, lures him to surmise that maybe he’d try it out someday. However, these future ruminations are also clouded by his practical and philosophical realization that perhaps he’d never have a chance to do so. Thus his assertion,
“Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back”
points at certain somber certainties in life; the fact that we may never receive an opportunity to explore the path, once discarded in life.
Stanza 4
The conclusion presents the poet’s thoughts of a phase in future when he would tell “this with a sigh” how, having taken the road, “less traveled by” has caused “all the difference.” Now the reader does not have any means to know what the “difference” is, or whether he “sighs” out of pleasure or repentance. This ambiguity renders the poem to have a double meaning, and the ultimate message sums up to be the poet’s insistence on looking at life as an exploration.
The fork in the road stands for the choices man faces while traversing in life.
The “undergrowth” possibly suggests the unperceived obstacles one might have to encounter as he moves along.
The poet mentions the presence of “a yellow wood,” thereby giving the idea that it is autumn.
At first, he selects a particular path “Because it was grassy and wanted wear.” However, immediately later, he states “Though as for that the passing there/Had worn them really about the same,” thus suggesting his indecision or the fact that making choices is pretty tough.
Metaphor
The two roads signify the choices in life
Personification
The path is given human attributes when it is said that it “wanted wear”
Irony
It is ironical that in spite of selecting the path of his choice, the poet assumes that he would be sighing years from now, concerning how his life turns out to be.
Frost makes use of simple, descriptive and informal words such as difference, sigh, leads, for giving the reader an impression of the mental confusion, urgency, and isolation, one is bound to experience, when one stands at the crossroads of his life.