Finding Happiness in The Road Not Taken One of Frost's most common themes is the choice that the poet faces with two roads, two ideas , two possibilities of action. The Road Not Taken deals with the choice between two paths and the results of the choice made by the poet. The obvious question arises whether it is better to choose a road where many travel, or choose the road less traveled and explore it on your own. In The Road Not Taken, the tone and setting of the speakers help illustrate the struggle a person faces in their life to choose the right path to take. It is possible to read this poem as a statement of self-pity on the part of the poet, a feeling, perhaps, that he has been deceived and misunderstood because he has taken an unpopular path. To support this tone, one might quote the last stanza: One day the speaker, sighing, will tell others that he took the unknown path when faced with a choice. The reading, however, misses much of the meaning of the second and third stanzas. At the end of the second, the speaker states that there really wasn't much difference between the two paths; neither had been truly worn out by traffic, although one had been worn more than the other. It becomes obvious that the tone of the speakers begins to change. He becomes a little more confident, not much, but definitely less confused and scared than before. The first glimpse of this change in tone is in the eighth verse where he says, because [the second road] was grassy and wanted to be worn out. It also shows that the speaker may not want to be like everyone else, a follower, but instead choose a different path and be himself, a leader. This verse also says that the path wanted to wear him, as if he was drawn to the path, not only by his desire to be different, but perhaps out of pity. It's a shame that the road is traveled less not because it isn't attractive, but because people are too afraid of being different. Verse 12 is interesting when the speaker says that, In the leaves no step had been trodden, which the reader might interpret to mean that a few people who chose to take the road less traveled encountered no difficulties or obstacles. He then goes on to say, Oh, I saved the first one for another day, as if to say it took him a long time to make his decision. In reality, months or even years may have passed before the speaker chose a path. He knew that the decision he made would determine the outcome of his life and that he would have to dedicate himself to the path he had chosen. Once he made this decision, he probably wouldn't be able to go back. In the third verse he says that both streets were covered with leaves that no one had stepped on. In other words, both roads were in more or less the same condition; it is what man does with his choice that makes the difference. The tone of the last stanza, then, is simply practical rather than self-pitying. You cannot know, when you make a choice, what the results of your decision will be. Rather than regret having taken the road not taken, the poet seems to say that he would probably do the same thing again. The tone of the speakers seemed to have changed with confidence. This confidence, shown in verse eighteen, when the speaker repeats the first verse, except he leaves out the word yellow. Purposely leaving out the word yellow is an example of imagery. In the first stanza, yellow meant the color of the trees and foliage, and in the third stanza they are no longer yellow. Even in the third verse he says: I will say it with a sigh somewhere ages and ages from now. This is not stated in a negative way, but just as a way of representing the factwho chose the right path. The sigh was to show that the road had not been easy. The setting in The Road Not Taken is very important. In the first line of the first stanza, Frost says: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, which seems to be a very important part of the poem. This phrase is a metaphor in which Frost uses the woods to represent life. Using it as an image helps you better understand the complexity of the problem the speaker is facing. If someone were at the edge of a forest you wouldn't be able to see clearly what's in front of you, because it would be blocked by trees and branches. Life is like those woods because no one can see clearly or predict what will happen in the future, just hope to choose a path that will lead you to good luck and happiness. Another interesting part of the first verse is the way it describes the forest. It describes the speaker's uncertainty and implies that he or she may be afraid to even choose a path. Evidently he doesn't want to take the wrong path and ruin his life. The reader may realize that while faced with these two paths he is very confused and even scared about which path to choose. All he can do is look as far down each avenue as possible and hope he decides on the right one. This is exactly what he does when he looks at the first street, at the end of the first verse. The second stanza begins with the speaker talking about the other path and how it seemed just as difficult, just as long, and just as right on this path as the first. This means that he took every step exactly analyzing this path as he did the other one. The speaker ends the poem by stating that he chose the road not taken and that this choice had great meaning in his life. After reading The Road Not Taken, the reader can determine two literary elements, tone and setting. This poem provides the reader with a situation that every person faces at least one situation in their life. The situation is that everyone has to struggle to try to get their life on the right track. The road that leads them to what they believe to be happiness. One of Frost's most common themes is the poet's choice of two paths, two ideas, two possibilities for action. The Road Not Taken deals with the choice between two paths and the results of the choice made by the poet. The obvious question arises whether it is better to choose a road where many travel, or choose the road less traveled and explore it on your own. In The Road Not Taken, the tone and setting of the speakers help illustrate the struggle a person faces in their life to choose the right path to take. It is possible to read this poem as a statement of self-pity on the part of the poet, a feeling, perhaps, that he has been deceived and misunderstood because he has taken an unpopular path. To support this tone, one might quote the last stanza: One day the speaker, sighing, will tell others that he took the unknown path when faced with a choice. The reading, however, misses much of the meaning of the second and third stanzas. At the end of the second, the speaker states that there really wasn't much difference between the two paths; neither had been truly worn out by traffic, although one had been worn more than the other. It becomes obvious that the tone of the speakers begins to change. He becomes a little more confident, not much, but definitely less confused and scared than before. The first glimpse of this change in tone is in the eighth verse where he says, because [the second road] was grassy and wanted to be worn out. It also shows that the speaker may not want to be like everyone else, a follower, but instead choose a different path and be himself, a.