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Decision Making in Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”

In the poem “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost exceedingly focus on the way people make decisions regarding the way of living and doing things. In the first line of the poem, Frost being the persona starts by saying that in the yellow woods there were two roads which diverged. This initially instigates the reader’s perception that there must be a matter of choice in the entire poem which is a reflection of the real-life scenarios during human growth life cycle. The poem is comprised of four stanzas, each being made up of five lines with a regular rhyme scheme of ABAAB. In “The Road Not Taken” Frost talks about talks about the real-life situation in a nostalgic commentary way of the decisions made in life making the poem is one of his most famous work. In this poem, Frost depicts that change is inevitable and people must make decisions in all the moves they make as a way on progressing in life, but it is astonishing and virtuous to know that there might be no any other chance to change your mind once choice made as time is perishable.

The simplicity of the symbolism used in the poem makes it attractive and exciting to read right from its beginning to the last line. The poem starts with a modest illuminating sentence, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” (Frost, page 6). The poem seems first to be set in a forest ecology where the speaker has to choose which road to follow as it is not possible to track both. The forked road symbolically represents the choice the persona have to make in life. Considering the two routes, there was a difference in each, this relating to the different ways his life might take depending on the decision made and hence has to be keen when choosing either way.

Frost being the persona in the poem shows the dilemma that faced him in reaching the diverging pathway as was walking through the forest during the autumn season when the leaves have turned yellow. The act of standing there transfixed wondering which path to follow portrays the intruding choices we have to make on the everyday basis. This decision will determine where one will end up going and who he or she will end up becoming in future. The fact that the poem specifies a particular season which is autumn bring about that every person has his or her period to prudently make decisions that at the end will determine what a kind of a person one will be and where you will end. It can be related to the average human growth process where people have to choose between the right and the wrong, and at the long run, one might not be able to change the destination or the choices made at the elderly age. For instance, at the tender gets the primary, secondary as well as the tertiary education but it is a matter of personal choice to decide where to advance with the postgraduate training or take the other path where one only tracks the career and family life.

Some justifications accredit the persona’s decisions of taking one path in the poem from the inner perceptions that this is the right path that he should follow and perhaps one will come when he has to follow another way. In the third paragraph, the fourth line the poem says, “Oh I kept the first for another day!” (Frost, page 2). There is a self-conflict within the persona’s instinct thinking that he might have followed the wrong path, but there is still hopes of one day getting that opportunity of observing the predictable route. It is a clear picture of how people follow some of their instincts that lead them the darkest tunnel that they might not be able to get out from in their entire life. Others assume that there is always next time and take things for granted making choices that will make them happy for a short while but live in regret the rest of their future wishing they had taken the right direction. The author is in doubt about the path he took but on his way sees both roads as the same even though not aware of where they can lead him.

Frost is an older adult who has the experience regarding the way of life through his personal experiences as well as seen others ways of appropriately using his writing skills to advice the entire world especially the young people. It is justified in the last paragraph first line where he states that he shall be telling about his decisions with a sigh. Does it mean that he regrets his ways of living or he messed with the direction he once took in life? Well, this might be the case, but according to the poem, one has to make decisions carefully. It postulates that it is better to follow the known direction that has been accompanied by many, but at the end, there is some light of hope that following a lonely path that will make you live in wonders of whether you are doing the correct thing. One can also decide to follow the uncommon way which many fear to follow and end up leaping the best in life. The persona took the less traveled path, and that was what made a difference between him and the rest of the people who followed the usual one. Therefore, it depends on the own instinct and cognitive, but the fact remains that life is irreversible and once time has gone will never be covered.

Work cited

Frost, Robert. The road not taken and other poems. Penguin, 2015.

Frost, Robert. The road not taken. Shamrock Press, 1916.