I have to write a 4 page essay on the road not taken by robert frost for my english 290 it has to be a critical analysis, i wrote a page and i'm not sure what else should I write. can someone help me?
Sometime in our lives we have to make noteworthy judgments. In life we either make auspicious decisions or we regret our decisions. The poem, "The Road Not Taken" written by Robert Frost is about a road taken by speaker and how it impacted his/her life. From the beginning to the end of his poem, Frost reveals that we should not make impetuous decisions about things in life, because the choices we make affect our future and it is impossible to go back and change the determinations that we have made in the past.
The Road Not Taken is one of Robert Frost's first poems and it is one of his most well known poems and it has been recited in several shows and movies in which the protagonist has a choice to make. The poem is written into four stanzas and each stanza has five lines in it. Each line has eight to ten syllabuses and it follows an iambic rhythm; an iambic rhythm is when one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.
The lines in each stanza rhyme in an abaab pattern. The symbols in this poem are very simple and this is a reason why it is very popular. There are many metaphors used in this poem. The two roads in the poem are supposed to represent decisions in life. According to resources Robert Frost wrote this poem tease his friend, who when they would take walks together always wonder, what would happen if he took a different route then the one he usually takes.
Robert Frost's tone in this helped me to understand the theme of the poem, which is making decisions. His tone in the poem is insightful as well as questionable. While reading the poem, we start to learn that there are two different roads in the poem, and the speaker of the poem is uncertain of which road to go on. We can assume this by the first line in the second stanza written here, "Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim"
Due to the brooding tone of the speaker, we can assume that the speaker is really thinking about a major life decision rather then two different roads. Within the poem, Frost concentrate on the idea of constructing decisions in a despondent way. We can plainly see that the first stanza of the poem exhibits the situation, the speaker has come at a fork in a road and can not decide which road to take, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,", A yellow wood makes us assume that the season in which this poem takes place is Autumn.
In the second stanza, the author states, "Then took the other, as just as fair/ And having perhaps the better claim/Because it was grassy and wanted wear" In this statement, we can conclude that both path were the same, with the exception that the one the speaker took the path no one has taken it before because even though it could be dangerous and less familiar. It held more promise then the one that was more traveled. This contradicts the second part of this stanza, which was "Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same," in this part of that stanza, we can tell that the speaker looked at the path more closely and noticed that many people have walked on this path.
The line, "And sorry I could not travel both," acquaints that the speaker would like to walk down both roads, nonetheless, since the speaker can not take both, he has to make a choice, "Oh, I marked the first for another day!" This line of the poem can suggest that the speaker decided to take the second road and come back to the first road another time, but then the speaker contradicts his first statement by saying "Yet knowing how way leads on to way/ I doubted if I should ever come back."
This statement conveys the idea that, since one choice or as the speaker says "way" leads to another choice, he doubts that he will come back to this decision in his life, because of this decision, his decisions in the future are affected. We can not assume that the speaker regrets his decision, but he does reveal to us "I shall be telling this with a sigh/Somewhere ages and ages hence" This can be taken as both a sign of regret as well as a sign of grief.
Donika, the work you have done so far is a good start for a critical review. It offers a clear foundation for your review and includes some very important and salient points. As a critique though, there is a lot more that you can do in order to stretch the essay. Didn't your professor offer you further instructions before giving the assignment? Usually professors offer a complete outline of what they expect to see in the essay. That should help you to complete the four pages. Without it though, you will be pressed to complete a total of 4 pages. So what can you do to stretch it?
You could start by choosing the lines of the poem that appeal to you the most. Do an in-depth analysis of the line in relation to the characterization of the speaker. Try to analyze the deeper meaning of the line in reference to the overall poem or the background of Frost. Remember, poets usually pull from real life experiences in their works. So you could try to look deeper into the mindset of Frost when he wrote this essay by doing some research on his background and the events that surrounded his composition of the poem.
For example, you can look into the possibility that the character voice in the poem belongs to Frost himself or someone he knew based upon the written word. What is the personal connection of the poem? Why do you think he wrote certain lines? Would it be quite possible that Frost had some particular person in mind to address the poem to? Remember, in a critical analysis, you need to go beyond the technical and obvious assumptions about the poem. To be a good critic, you need to be able to go beyond the common sense understanding of the poem.
Another approach to this essay is to read the other critiques of the poem online. Try to represent your own opinion of the poem based upon the opinion of others that came up during your research. That usually helps to lighten the task of writing accurate critiques of literary work. Google is usually a students best friend in this case :-)
so is something like this all right then
The line, "And sorry I could not travel both," acquaints that the speaker would like to walk down both roads, nonetheless, since the speaker can not take both, he has to make a choice, "Oh, I marked the first for another day!" This line of the poem can suggest that the speaker decided to take the second road and come back to the first road another time, but then the speaker contradicts his first statement by saying "Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back." This statement conveys the idea that, since one choice or as the speaker says "way" leads to another choice, he doubts that he will come back to this decision in his life
