Robert Frost Essay, Research Paper

In Robert Frosts’ poem “The Road Not Taken,” Frost talks of choosing between two roads to travel. Frost has come to a split in the road and has to choose which road to pick. In Randy Travis’ song “I Told You So,” a man learns that his girlfriend is choosing between himself and another man. Frosts’ poem and Travis’ song are very much the same ideas in different words.

In Frosts’ poem, he writes of two roads splitting into one. Frost writes of being sorry he could not travel down both and looking down one until he could not see anymore. In Travis’ song he tells of a women choosing between two equal men without knowing a lot about either one. Frost writes of choosing the road, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear.” In Travis’ song, the woman does not know which man to choose because she does not know anything about them. She has to make a decision and chooses the man that has never dated anyone before. She chooses this man for no particular reason, just like Frost chose the road.

After Frost writes of choosing the road, he tells of keeping the other road for another day. Why Frost is saving the road for another day is left undetermined. In Travis’ song, the girl chose the guy who had never dated anyone but now wants the other. The girl wants the other because of the fact he knows how to treat a person while dating. He sings, “I told you so, you learned your lesson now, it’s sad but true.” In Frosts’ closing words, “I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.” Whether Frost made the right or wrong decision is left for the reader to decide, for Travis’ song it was the wrong decision.

These two literary works are scaringly alike. They both talk of the same things happening at the same times. The ending of Frosts’ poem is left for the reader while the listeners of Travis’ song find out the outcome of the girls’ decision. This song and poem makes readers and listeners wonder if Robert Frosts’ writing inspired Randy Travis?