The Road Not Taken - the Chosen Road

The Chosen Road

Life is a long road that provides many challenges and choices, and it is within the beholder to overcome those obstacles and make those decisions. "The Road Not Taken", composed by the one and only Robert Frost in the year of 1916 depicts this theme in great detail within the text. Frost opens up this poem with the line "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood." This sets up the entire poem by using the two roads as symbolism to depict two choices in life. The color yellow can represent bright and happy like a sunny day or can represent neglect like yellow teeth rotting away. Not only does this opening line have direct correlation with the outlying theme of the poem, but also reflects his characteristics as he was born and raised in the city, yet wrote almost exclusively about rural life. Frost was born in San Fransico in 1874 and resided there until his father passed away in 1885, thus forcing a decision to go cross country to Massachusetts. Frost's work has strong ties with me due to the fact that I have taken certain side streets that have lead me to where I am today, but I have not yet chosen my ultimate road. One side street led me here to Santa Rosa Junior college. This was the decision to keep playing

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baseball and required me to move away from my family, friends and my hometown to pursue my dreams of playing baseball at the highest level possible. There are many aspects in life that are determining factors in the decisions we make. Some are positive and some are negative, yet it is how one reacts to those life changing situations and opportunities proposed that create the character we all have inside of us.

Life often presents itself with more than one opportunity and different paths to take that will lead to different destinations. Sometimes both of these life paths will seem appealing, but one road must be eliminated to travel the other, As Frost describes "And sorry I could not travel both." Frost and his mother were faced with a decision when he was only eleven years old to move from the Bay area to the East coast; although he was still young, the decision affected him for the rest of his life. The move connected Frost with his grandfather who taught him well and set him up for his writing career. Frost was faced with many more decisions in his adult life as he held many jobs that were unrelated to writing poetry such as farming and working in a textile mill. These jobs were all left behind in order for Frost to travel down the road that led to his career in poetry.

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Frost takes a good look down both of these roads before he makes his decision on which he will metaphorically embark down. He weighs the options of

both roads thoroughly and looks as far into the future as he can. One road seems to have been traveled less by the signs of wear and tear on each one, metaphorically meaning people have traveled down both roads and made it to the end, yet more people have chosen one over the other. Frost also uses imagery to create significance in each road as he describes the journey down them.

The first road he looks at is described by the line "To where it bent in the undergrowth" (Frost). The word undergrowth creates an image of a rugged, grown over, unpaved road that is physically demanding and will take more than just an ordinary pair of sneakers to make it to the end. This road is obviously not the high road per say because of its difficulty by nature. The opportunity to take this road is more dangerous because it is not only a more difficult journey, but the end is foggy and unclear with a fine line between success and failure.

The second road is described as "grassy and wanted wear" (Frost). This is the road more commonly traveled which symbolizes mediocrity. The grassy path seems much more inviting than the burly looks of the undergrowth and untamed

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matter which lies ahead on the diverse road. Most choose the grassy road and its feeling of security when the average is accomplished.

Often times, dreams lie down the road not taken. Society does not aspire to be average, but is afraid not to be. Fear of failure humbles the mind into following the grassy road that Frost portrays. For a special