The Road Not

Taken

ROBERT FROST
Two roads diverged in a yellow
wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I
could
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
 Imag
Metaphor ery

Two roads diverged in a yellow

wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood Simile
And looked down one as far as I
could
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better Person
ificati
claim,
on
Because it was grassy and wanted
wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages
Repetiti
hence: on
Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the
• Major Themes of the Poem: The poem comprises uncertainty and
perplexing situation of the minds of people about what they may face
when standing on the verge of making choices. It is because life is full
of choices, and the choices we make, define the whole course of our
lives. Similarly, the narrator faces a situation during his travel. He finds
two roads at a point where he has to choose one and must abide by
his choice. He thinks he may come back one day to travel on the
other road. However, he also has a feeling that his choice will confront
him with new adventures and challenges. Though there is some
regret over his choice, yet he realizes that the things he has
encountered and the places he has visited, because of this path, have
made all the difference in his life.
• This interpretation I made is also partly based on his letters to his friend, Thomas,
who was frequently second-guessing his choices in life.
• I remember reading that the original writer (Robert Frost), wrote this poem intended
to be lighthearted. It was meant to be about his friend who was always hesitant
when making decisions like this. Frost and his friend would go walking and his
friend would always end up regretting the path that they took, wondering if he had
made the right choice. Frost would say that his friend was “crying over what might
have been”. The sigh in line 16 was a mock sigh. Frost wrote the poem and sent it to
his friend as a joke. Meant to be a little tease, but his friend saw something else in it,
as do many people. Proof, I think, that the original meaning of something doesn’t
decide for the reader the lesson that they’ll learn from it. Or the meaning that they’ll
find in it XD That being said- I really like the other interpretations just as much, if not
more than what it was originally about though. And this is one of my favourite
poems.

Guys, he wrote it as a joke. He was a satire of his friend who walked

with him and constantly regretted what he might have missed. Look
at the title. It's not about the road he took, it's about the road he didn't
take.
 Maybe I'm dense but, Is this not aboug not being a sheep
and following the herd? Blaze your own path - you can be
different.. -

• If you hear pride it is probably because you've been conditioned read it that way, as
though taking the road "less traveled" is about American non-conformity and being your
own person. That is what Emerson would mean if he wrote this, but Robert Frost had
existential concerns. Both paths he says were "really worn about the same" and in
choosing one he knew he would not come back to walk the other. The "sigh" is not a sign
of contentment, it's a sign of regret that he could not, as the title says, return to embark
down "The Road Not Taken", the one he thought about returning to. A core tenet of
Existentialism is that no matter what choice you make you will regret it. You will go back
in your mind and replay "what if" situations over and over again. The solution for the
Existentialist is to accept that regreet is part of life, acknowledge it freely, and to bravely
and courageously still make your own Goddamn choice, and live with the consequences.
While he says that his choice "made all the difference" he never says whether that was a
good difference or a bad one! Because for an Existentialist it doesn't matter, you have to
own it either way and take responsibility for it. So, the Road Not Taken is NOT the road
the author takes in the poem, it's the one he doesn't take. What say you?
• Frost was disappointed that the joke fell flat and wrote back, insisting that
the sigh at the end of the poem was “a mock sigh, hypo-critical for the fun
of the thing.”

• Through its progression, the poem suggests that our power to shape events
comes not from choices made in the material world—in an autumn stand
of birches—but from the mind’s ability to mold the past into a particular
story. The roads were about the same, and the speaker’s decision was
based on a vague impulse. The act of assigning meanings—more than the
inherent significance of events themselves—defines our experience of the
past. 
there is no Right Path—just the chosen path
and the other path. 
• Indeed, when Frost and Thomas went walking together, Thomas would often choose
one fork in the road because he was convinced it would lead them to something,
perhaps a patch of rare wild flowers or a particular bird’s nest. When the road failed
to yield the hoped-for rarities, Thomas would rue his choice, convinced the other
road would have doubtless led to something better. In a letter, Frost goaded Thomas,
saying, “No matter which road you take, you’ll always sigh, and wish you’d taken
another.” 
• And, indeed, the title of the poem hovers over it like a ghost: “The Road Not
Taken.” According to the title, this poem is about absence. It is about what the poem
never mentions: the choice the speaker did not make, which still haunts him. Again,
however, Frost refuses to allow the title to have a single meaning: “The Road Not
Taken” also evokes “the road less traveled,” the road most people did not take. 
The tone used and mood created is : Reflective and nostalgic. •The poet is Reflecting on (thinking
about) the decision he had to make and is nostalgic for the path he was unable to take. Relates to
having to make decisions and looking back on the consequences of those decisions. •Nostalgia:
Longing for familiar things – usually from the past. TONE AND MOOD