American Literature

Lyudmila Pakhomova

Professor Sally A . Drucker

English 102

May 16 , 2007

The Dilemma of Choices in Four Poems by Robert Frost

Robert Frost covered a number of different subjects throughout the course of his long poetic career . One of the main ones was the passage of time and the choices that all human beings must make a certain times Along with these choices , especially when they are made at important times of life , come a permanent wondering about what might have occurred if another choice was made . In four of

Robert Frost 's poems , Mending Wall , The Road Not Taken , An Old Man 's Winter Night and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening he examines such moments of choice in a characteristically subdued and simple manner

Two of these poems , which are also two of Frost 's most well-known works , deal directly with the subject of life-choices through the metaphor of a person traveling through the countryside on their own and stopping . These two poems , The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening examine in detail the inner thought processes of a person who has come to a turning point in their life . In the first one the poem starts , two roads diverged in a yellow wood / And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler , long I stood . Frost presents his case somewhat simply but at the same time profoundly . The unnamed narrator of the poem I ' has come to a fork in a path and must decide which course to take

Later in the poem he describes the differences between the two paths using the metaphor of one being worn and the other being less traveled by . He decided to take this one , and it has made all the difference . The rhyme scheme of the poem abaab makes for a flowing piece that is easily read by the reader , and makes the final line of each stanza somewhat conclusive . This reflects the protagonist 's attitude towards the choice that he made . In Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening there is a more complex rhyme scheme which makes the stanzas essentially echo one another . There is less certainty to aaba /bbcb /c .This reflects the fact that rider has not necessarily come to fork in the pathway through the snowy woods , but has merely stopped

There is a sense of foreboding about this poem , as it is set on the darkest evening of the year . Perhaps it is about a person knowing that death is always present at the end of one path , and the metaphor for this may be the woods that are lovely , dark and deep . The last stanza has all four lines rhyming , and even repeats the whole line in the third and fourth line , deep /keep /sleep /sleep . This traveler 's journey is not only towards the home that waits for him , but through a long life that will , as it does for everyone , eventually end in...