The_Road_Not_Taken_Analysis

This poem is about life and the decisions we make in it. I find it comforting to read this poem in times when I am making my own choices. The Road Not Taken has four stanzas of five lines each. In the first stanza, the poet describes his current situation. Here he is in the wood on an autumn’s day, when he comes to a fork in the road. We know that it is an autumn’s day because he describes the wood as ‘a yellow wood’, from this we get a vision of what his situation may look like. Although he wishes to take both roads, he understands that the possibility of that is very unlikely. To help decide on which road he should take, he looks down one as far as his eye can see until the road bends into the undergrowth. In the second stanza, he takes in everything the other road has to offer, and notes that this road looks slightly less popular than the first. He then examines both roads once again, and notices that both roads are actually quite similar. They have both been ‘worn really about the same’. In the third stanza he continues to describe both roads, and reports that he has decided to take the second path. Here he says that he does not know where the road will lead, and he doubts that he should ever come to this situation again. The poem finally ends with the fourth stanza, the poet is sure of his decision now and there is no turning back. He says this with a sigh; whether it is a regretful sigh or a sigh of relief we do not know. The poet himself also has no knowledge as to the nature of his sigh, for he doesn’t yet know if he has taken the right road. He ends with ‘And that has made all the difference’, here he is talking about the result of his choice. He doesn’t know whether this choice had a positive or negative outcome because he has not yet experienced the ‘difference’. The rhyme in this poem follows an ABAAB pattern. Meaning the last word in the first, third, and fourth lines rhyme. The last word of the second and fifth lines of the poem also rhyme. The rhyme scheme is rhymed tetrameter, meaning that there are four beats in a line. This whole poem is a symbolisation in itself, the two roads in the yellow wood symbolise life and the impact our choices have on our lives. It doesn’t only moralise about choice, but it also says that choices are unavoidable, but you never know how that choice will affect you until you have experienced the outcome of it. Sometimes we don’t always make the right decision, but life goes on and you can’t change the past.