Robert Frost`S ?The Road Not Taken? Essay, Research Paper

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

People make decisions every single day, even if they know it or not. Whether it is an important decision as in buying the right car, or a little decision as in deciding what to eat for lunch. No matter what the decision maybe, one has to make choices everyday. Although it may be the wrong choice later on, no one has the ability to look into the future. But one must move on even though it may not be the right choice. Robert Frost explains this well in “The Road Not Taken”, in which he describes a situation where a person is at a fork in the road, and has to make a decision on which path to take.

In the first part of the poem Frost compares and contrasts the two roads:

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

This part of the poem explains that the choices one should make should be well thought out before actually deciding. Meaning, hesitate before taking action to the decision, to think it over, which will lessen the possibility of choosing the less satisfying choice. That is why people make choices in the first place, to get the better side of the decision. Frost also expresses the idea of hesitating before taking action in the third and fourth line saying “And sorry I could not travel both / And looked down one as far as I could.” These two lines are especially important because it can be associated with all types of decisions. The third line points out how one cannot choose all the choices, which the majority of the time is true; and the fourth line points out again the importance of evaluating the choices thoroughly before deciding.

In the second part of the poem Frost makes the decision on which path to take. This is said in the thirteenth line “Oh, I kept the first for another day!” Perhaps being an adventures person, Frost decides on choosing the less traveled path, which was the second road described in the poem as “grassy and wanted wear.” Yet still hesitant to take the path because in lines fourteen and fifteen Frost says “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back.” Frost explains that one will never know what will happen later on, and perhaps will never end up in that same situation again, therefore should make the best choice at that moment. Again, as the first point, think the choices through before making the decision, and this is what Frost does here. Ending the poem Frost explains, somewhere later in the future, will reflect back at the situation and wonder about the decision made. But the last two lines “I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference,” seemed like Frost was confident in the choice made.

Basically, Robert Frost in “The Road Not Taken,” points out the importance of making the best choice possible in everyday situations. People forget that if one thinks about the choices just for a moment, then they will greater the chance in getting the better side of the deal. This is helpful especially if decisions are made every single day. Just think about it, decisions are placed among everyone, from important ones as in buying a car, or from little ones as in what to eat for lunch. Sometimes it can be easy, and sometimes it can be hard, but everyone has decisions, decisions, decisions.