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Essay / Poetic Ambiguity and Universal Adaptation of “The Road Not Taken”
Robert Frost's “The Road Not Taken” is one of the most anthologized, most read, most appreciated, and most analyzed poems in the American canon . A short poem consisting of four stanzas of five lines each composed of simple direct language constructed from words of two syllables or less. The poem clearly did not achieve its high status as a result of experimentation with elements of form like rhyme scheme, meter. or even the use of unusually figurative images. In fact, “The Road Not Taken” stands out from most other poems that enjoy due academic esteem precisely because a reader need not be a graduate student – or even a high school graduate – to understand one or other of the words or words. arrive at a questionable interpretation of meaning. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The simplicity of “The Road Not Taken” is what allows the ultimately ambiguous ending to transform the poem into one with meaning so universally recognized that it is equally suitable for hanging on the kitchen wall of an Iowa farmhouse and for analysis by English students in the libraries of the world's most renowned universities. Frost gives each stanza its own individual consideration of the titular concept of the choices one makes in life and how each choice one makes also allows for the potential for at least one alternative choice that does not have been done. The first stanza is not only about coming to a fork in the road of life, it also speaks very specifically about how the choices we make so often must be made with the undergrowth of the unknown blocking our way. access to fully see future consequences. The second stanza offers a glimpse of the ambiguity that looms at the end of the poem and still seems to be the one that has led so many readers to misinterpret the poem under its misunderstood title "The Road Less Traveled." Frost deliberately aims to convince the reader that the speaker is full of the Yankee spirit of individualism and nonconformity by showing himself willing to make the quick decision to take the road less traveled. By the end of the stanza, however, not only does he seem to have recanted from this rebellious impulse, but he even now seems to be unsure about which of the paths is actually the one less traveled. The third stanza would seem to confirm that the common interpretation of the poem as if it really is "The Road Less Traveled" is very simplistic indeed. In the space of a few moments, Frost offers us an eternity of possibilities that have little or nothing to do with the much-vaunted reading of the poem as a tour de force of nonconformist thought. What may at first seem like a decision based entirely on a rebellious hesitation to join the crowd quickly becomes an abject lesson in rationalization: he can always come back and try that other path later, which is more characteristic of someone who hedges his bets. as the mark of a rugged individualist. But then, just when such a rejection of the speaker's commitment seems entirely justified, such justification for choosing one path over another is abandoned in favor of quick and of even quicker acceptance that such an opportunity to try to follow two divergent paths is so rare. as non-existent. The last five lines link directly back to the imagery of the first stanza in which the undergrowth acts as a metaphor for the obstructed view of the future that resides in every choice we have made..