The poem The Road Not Taken has been labeled as the classic conflict of life's decisions, however, critics like Jay Parini feel completely different. ... Parini argues that the speaker is saying, "When I am old, like all old men, I shall make a myth of my life. ... By his analysis of The Road Not Taken, Parini portrays his own cynical outlook on life. ... Every day people are faced with choices, and the outcome of those choices is vulnerable to life's "by chance" happenings, like the roads diverged in the yellow wood. ...

• Word Count: 2122
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

All these distinctions between literature and non-literature: personal expression, realization, lack of practical purpose and fictionality are restatements within a framework of semantic analysis of age old aesthetic terms such as: unity in variety, aesthetic distance, framing, invention and imitation. ...

• Word Count: 5585
• Approx Pages: 22
• Grade Level: Undergraduate