The Regretful Traveler in Robert Frost’s The Road
Not Taken
by Barry Wright
Essay: The Regretful Traveler in Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken
Pages: 10
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Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” (rpt. In Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson, Perrine’s Literature: Structure,
Sound, and Sense, 10th ed. [Boston: Wadsworth, 2009] 725 presents itself with a traveler that is dissatisfied with
the decision that he has to make. A situation of life sometime requires a decision to be made between two things
that will have a huge impact in the end. The consequences are not always what we expect.
I will now explain how Frost used literal and figurative techniques to describe a man traveling through the woods
and his thoughts on deciding which road to take. Literally, the man appeared to be content with his travels until
he reached the fork in the road, and had to make a decision. Figuratively, he is a man who was living his life and
became troubled when he was faced with a big decision.
And be one traveler, long I stood
Perhaps the undergrowth is a symbol of his blocked vision of where the road might lead him. The one road may
have been full of fun, money, and opportunity, but he could not see the end of it. The undergrowth could also
mean that long running vines of greenery that stretched along the road and lead to nowhere.
Frost uses a lot of imagery to inform the reader of the other choices. Both roads had been traveled the same, but
had different appearances. The grass could have given the illusion that the road in the second stanza would
provide better opportunity. There is a saying, “don’t let the green grass fool you,” meaning although the grass is
green, it doesn’t have to be the best choice. The yellow wood could represent that it was time for a change to take
place in his life just like when the leaves change color in the fall of the year. From a biblical point of view, a chang...
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