Page 13 - DENG203_ELECTIVE_ENGLISH_IV

Elective English—IV

Notes Line 20
And that has made all the difference.
At first it looks like this line is triumphant as the narrator chose the road that no one else
did, and that is what made the difference in his life and helped succeed in life. An optimistic
reader wants the line to read positively, but it can be read both ways. A “difference” in this
line could simply mean either success or absolute failure. Remember, the poet is telling us
about what he’s going to say in the future while narrating his story. From where he is
now, he can’t tell by just looking down the path if the future this path leads him to will be
good or bad. All he knows is that choice is significant as it will make all the difference in
his life.
It looks like the poet of this poem is saying that his choice made all the difference while walking
alone on the streets in the wind or while being surrounded by his grandchildren, by a fire in a
cosy little house. At this point, he doesn’t know where the path chosen by him will take him.

Precisely, the poem includes four stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker talks about his position.
After walking the woods, the speaker comes to two roads. He stands and looks down as far as he
can to see both the roads and make a decision about which one to take. He wants to travel on
both the roads, but doubts if he can do that. So he continues to stare at both the roads for a long
time trying to decide which road to take. In the second stanza, he states that he has finally
decided to take the other path as it seems that the second path has less traffic than the first one.
Then again he says that both the roads are actually very similar in condition and both are
equally worn out. The third stanza talks about the possible differences between both the roads.
He saw that the leaves had freshly fallen on both the roads. Then again he says that he may
return to walk the first road sometime. Although he doubted if he could return as in life one
thing or decision leads to another and time is short. The fourth stanza shows that there is the
“what a relief “sigh and the “oh, dear” kind of sigh. Though, it is not very clear as to which one
he really means. It is because the speaker himself cannot know how his choice will affect his
future until after he has lived it.

Notes Robert wrote the poem on an autumn morning on a forest road. He got inspiration
to write this poem from the scenery in rural Gloucestershire, England. During their stay in
Great Britain from 1912 to 1915, Robert and his family had hired a cottage, Little Iddens,
near Dymock, Gloucestershire, in the summer of 1914.
Edward Thomas (1878-1917), also a writer, was residing at a cottage just half a mile away
from Frost’s cottage. Edward was a literary critic, nature writer and essayist. He had
favourably reviewed Robert’s poetry and become one of Robert’s best friends. During
their walks in lanes and forests, botany and poetry were their common topics of discussion.
After being insisted by Robert, Edward began writing poetry. He later got great fame in
this genre. Upon returning from their walks, Edward often expressed a wish that they had
taken an alternate road to view its plants. In response to this, Robert started writing his
poem “The Road Not Taken,” which he completed writing after he and his family went
back to the United States.
Robert and Edward remained friends until Edward died fighting in World War I. In “The
Road Not Taken,” the path through the “yellow wood” could be anywhere, but Robert
may have been thinking about the Gloucestershire wilds when he began writing this
poem.

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