‘Kidnapped’ and ‘The Road not Taken’ Poem Analysis

I’m going to analyze my two favorite poems. ‘Kidnapped’ By Shel Silverstein and ‘The Road Not Taken’ By Robert Frost. I am going to write about the meaning behind them. ‘Kidnapped’ is more lighthearted and fun where as ‘The Road Not Taken’ has a more deep meaning.

‘Kidnapped’ By Shel Silverstein is about a girl who makes an excuse to being late for school. Her excuse is that she was kidnapped by “three masked men”. They apparently tied hands behind her back and held a “shotgun” to her head! She went into so much detail when telling her story.

She even went as far as saying the color and type of car she was taken into. It was a “big black limousine”. My view of this poem is that people can come up with lies as an excuse so they don’t face consequences. The girl was most likely scared of getting a tardy slip for being late to school, so she made up the excuse of being kidnapped. She added detail to her lie to make it believable even though it was not believable whatsoever. ‘The Road Not Taken’ By Robert Frost is about a person looking back on one of their life decisions. They took the “one less traveled by” which means they took a different route than others do. In a literal sense this could mean that they could have walked upon forked paths on a trail, and taken the path not many walked on. The deeper meaning is that the person is looking back on a decision where they made a choice that not many others do. This could be an unsure path like choosing not to go to college and pursuing another passion. It is risky but could end in the way you want it to. Another example is pursuing a passion in the arts when your parents and family all went down a sure and less risky path. The narrator does not regret their decision and says “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

This is a positive thing saying that it made a big change in their life. It could have made them happier and or more successful. Both the poems that I analysed had deeper meanings. When you look at a poem from a figurative sense you get a whole different story than when you look at it literally. A poem about a girl lying about being kidnapped turns into people not wanting to face consequences and making lies to avoid them. And a poem about a person looking back on choosing a different path turns into a person looking back on themself pursuing their passion even though it was a risky and uncertain path.

Did you like this example?

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