Introduction of the Poem:
“The Road Not Taken” is one of the finest and the most popular lyrics of Robert Frost. It was collected by Frost in the volume of verses entitled Mountain Interval in 1916. It was first published in the August 1915 issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Here the poet tells us that once, while travelling alone, he reached a point where the road diverged into two different directions. He was in a quandary as he was not able to decide which road to take. Ultimately, he decided to move ahead on the road which was less travelled. And this choice made all the difference.
Summary of the Poem:
The poet had before him two roads running through an autumnal forest, which was covered with yellow leaves. The roads went to different directions. The poet being a single person could not travel on both the roads at one and the same time. This filled him with regret. For a long time he stood in a state of indecision. Then he cast his glance on one of the roads as far as he could. Beyond that the road took a turn and was lost to the poet's view because of shrubs and bushes growing on the ground.
Next the poet glanced at the other road, which was as good and as clean as the first one. This second one was however the better one because it was covered with grass and had not suffered much damage. But in that respect they were nearly similar and both of them had not suffered much wear and tear.
On that morning both the roads were equally covered with leaves because neither of them had been trodden upon and the leaves on both of them lay unscattered. At this point, the point took a decision. He chose the second road and deferred the use of the first for some other day in future. But at the same time the poet was aware of the fact that that day in future may never come as one path leads to another and that another to yet another and so on and so forth. He doubted if he would ever be able to traverse the first, now abandoned, road.
In this stanza the poet moves from the narration of the present to the retrospection of some distant future. It is just likely that he will regret his present choice. However he will justify his present choice by telling the people that he had taken this road because it was less frequented. But then he would be moan his choice as it had made so much difference in his life.
Critical Appreciation of the Poem:
Introduction:
“The Road Not Taken" is one of the best known and the most popular lyrics of Robert Frost. According to Frost this poem was written by him about Edward Thomas, a fellow English poet, who got killed in action in World War I at Vimy Ridge: “This has something to do with the same questions of being understood and not being understood. It is one of the great ones of literary criticism. There is an old school of art that insists on the right to be understood by everybody. Some say that we may insist that we write for no audience at all. There must be an audience, an audience invisible, a blend of all the interesting people whom I have dealt with.”
Theme of the Poem:
The theme of the poem is simple: While travelling alone, the poet reached a point where the road bifurcated into two different directions. He was not able to choose the road on which he should travel. After great mental deliberation, he finally decided to leave the road which was more frequented, and move ahead on the road which was less travelled by. This choice made all the difference in his life. About the theme of the poem Louis Untermeyer says: “Robert Frost has gone his own way. He could not help it; his destination, — and perhaps his destiny— was directed by the spirit behind the man...… Once while travelling alone, Frost tells us, he stood at a point on the road, undecided which part to take. Finally, he chose one because it seemed a little less frequented, though actually there was no such difference, for ‘the passing there had worn them really about the same.’ Yet even at the moment of choice, the poet quizzically imagined that the choice was important, that he would someday tell himself he took the less travelled road:
And that has made all the difference.
The poet's difference is in him from the beginning, long before he sets out on his career. The road that Robert Frost took was not only the ‘different’ road, the right road for him, but the only road he could have taken.”
Criticism about the Poem:
Despite the fact that this is a very famous poem of Frost, some adverse criticism has also been offered. One such critic is Yvor Winters. He says: “The Road Not Taken”, for example, is the poem of a man whom one might fairly call a spiritual drifter; and a spiritual drifter is unlikely to have either the intelligence or the energy to become a major poet. Yet the poem has definite virtues, and these should not be overlooked. In the first place, spiritual drifters exist, they are real; and although their decisions may not be comprehensible, their predicament is comprehensible. The poem renders the experience of such a person, and renders the uncertain melancholy of his plight. Had Frost been a more intelligent man he might have seen that the plight of the spiritual drifter was not inevitable, he might have judged it in the light of a more comprehensive wisdom. Had he done this, he might have written a greater poem. But his poem is good as far as it goes; the trouble is that it does not go far enough, it is incomplete, and it puts on the reader a burden of critical intelligence which ought to be borne by the poet.”
The criticism of Yvor Winters notwithstanding, the poem remains, in the words of Thompson, “an indication of Frost's versatility.” It is characterized by simplicity, clarity, epigrammatic wisdom, and terseness. It is a personal lyric, so the conventions of the dramatic lyric— parentheses, dashes, and pauses etc. — are not employed by the poet. To say the least, this poem has made Frost a household name in English speaking countries.
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