Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods on Thesis

Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Out-compare/Contrast

The Uncertainty of Life

Robert Frost was an American poet who often explored the impact that nature and the environment had on the individual. Frost found that nature allowed the individual to take an introspective look into how present choices may impact future outcomes while keeping in mind that some things are out of an individual's control. In the poems "The Road Not Taken," "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening," and "Out," Frost explores the limitations that an individual has over how their life turns out.

In "The Road Not Taken," an unnamed narrator is traveling to an unnamed destination on a road that eventually forks, presumably representative of the narrator's life path. When the narrator comes upon "two roads diverged in a yellow wood," he faces a difficult decision as he can only choose one road to travel (line 1). Assuming that both paths lead to the same destination, the narrator must choose whether he should travel the "one less traveled by" or if he should take the road that is more defined and that more people have traveled (line 19). After careful consideration, and extensive comparison of both roads, the narrator decides that he is going to take the road that appears to be less worn and less traveled.In the poem, the roads are representative of the choices that one must make in life. The road that is more traveled may be representative of choosing to coast through life on the coattails and accomplishments of others without having to worry about the impact that they will have made on their environment, whereas the road that is less traveled may prove more difficult but will give the individual a greater sense of accomplishment.

"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" carries on the theme of journeying on a road that is less traveled. The narrator in this second poem is traveling in an isolated part of the countryside with his only companion being a horse. The narrator emphasizes how isolated he is by commenting that the landowner will "not see [him] stopping here/To watch his woods fill up with snow" because "His house is in the village;" moreover, the narrator observes that there is not….....