HELP - Road Not Taken (1 Viewer)

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Hi, I've just started the year 12 course, we've finished analysing the 1st text, the Road not Taken by Robert Forst, however after many attempts & looking through websites, books, etc, I still can't quite fugre out the meanings of the last stanza, I've tried asking my teacher - but she's confused me even more. Would anyone who has studied the text in the past be able to help me out & give me a more detailed explanation. Help would be very, very much appreciated, thanks
 

jdrockefeller

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Oh shit. Hit the panic button. There's only some 360 odd days to the HSC!!!!

Actually, reading your post I'm not sure you'll make it to the HSC. The Road Not Taken is one of the most simplistic poems ever. How hard is it to work out? He uses the motif of a literal walk in the woods in which to express how he came to a crossroad in his life and he has to make a decision.

And what don't you get about the last stanza? Again, simplistic. He took the road less travelled, as in, he went against the grain, did something different, and that has made all the difference to him.
 
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ok, thankyou, because I also heard something that in the last stanza the speaker was lying or something, so thanks a heap
 

Master Gopher

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There are multiple interpretations for the last stanza:

*It could be that he took the unconventional path.

*On the other hand, the poem was written as a gentle satire on a friend of Frost's who spent all his time regretting the direction he took at crossroads, so it could be poking fun at him for placing too much importance on such a trivial thing rather than enjoying the moment. This is likely because he says at about 3 other points in the poem that both roads are the same ("equally lay", "really about the same" and another one I don't remember)

*Or, he could be thinking about the choice he made, and explaining that his choice had either a) bad long-term effects or b) good long term effects (both can be sort of the same as the first interpretation, i.e. unconventional path was good/bad for him.. but it could be just a metaphor for choice generally rather than common or uncommonly taken paths)

The title could be significant as meaning
a) The road I didn't take (regretful tone, thinking about what he's missed - again, satire of his friend)
b) The road I didn't take (just plain regret, or alternatively, *not* having made a significant mistake)
c) The road less people took (I took the less conventional, normally not-taken road)

Hope that helps everyone. There are points for and against all those views, it just depends on how *you* see it really. As long as you can use language in the poem to back up your opinion about it, you're good.
 

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