诗歌 未选择的路 鉴赏
Comment on The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken is a famous poem written by Robert Frost, a famous American poet. We can say that Robert Frost is one of the most popular poets in America during 1990s and he is the unofficial Poet Laureate. He devoted his whole life into poetry creation, and wrote and published ten poetry anthologies. The Road Not Taken is one masterpiece of his third poetry anthology--- The Interval of The Mountain.
The form of The Road Not Taken is the traditional iambic tetrameter, but the foot is changeable(there are many anapaestic components). The rhythm of every stanza is abaab. The Road Not Taken is my favourite poem written by Robert Frost. The most special characteristic is that he is good at explaining a profound philosophy theory just using some bland stuff. Just because he usually used concrete things to interpret abstract concepts, his poems are much easier to be accepted and understood by readers. Just as he wrote in this poem:"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both... I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference". He choose the poetry instead of teaching in a normal school, which means a smooth and steady life. He said to himself:"Just to write poems and let it be poor" So he came to the UK and find a cottage in a village not far from London as his new house.
This poem has four stanzas and can be divided into two stratum. The first three stanzas form the first stratum. In the woods, "I" am faced with two roads, and after thinking,"I" decided to choose the untraversed one. In this stratum, the poet describes that the choice was not made hastily, instead, he made it after a complex mental process. This stratum describes that "I" am standing before the fork road, and feel pity for not taking two road at the same time. "long I stood " describes "my" hesitation and thinking: a road is smooth
enough to see its end; but the other one is desolate, fulling of the temptation of exploration. But infinite beauties only can be seen on the perilous peaks, so "I" finally chose the one less traveled and let the other one to be stepped in the following days. It is clear that that is the author's morale-boosting after the choice because"Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back". Even though "I" have a sense of fear, "I" go on without remorse. The fourth stanza is the second stratum. And it's is the author's feelings after several years."I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference" That tells us that we will face numerous choices in our lives, and every choice will influence us a lot. How a person's lifetime is spent is determined by the options he has made. A different choice makes a different fate.
The the biggest characteristic on poetic style of Frost is simplicity but meaningful. He put the profound philosophy into bland content and concise simple verse. The Road Not taken can be the model on this aspect. This language of this poem is plain and natural, but the conception is very clever. We see that the fork in this poem is the symbol of life. It shows that, in the journey of life, we often have to make choice within two roads, two kinds of thought or actions and different choice will determine different life direction. When we are facing that, we tend to be hesitate but we will ultimately choose one of the them. This poem depicts the mentality when a person is facing his life-fork. The key point is the choice and every reader can find his life experience in this poem, and appreciate the philosophy. Because the rich connotation of this poem, it leaves readers some space for imagination. So the readers are deeply touched, and think a lot. This kind of complex psychological experience which everyone has is caught sensitively by Frost, and write this universal praised poem. And I think the reason why this poem is so popular is also that it represents people's common feelings.