by Kerry Michael Wood

Created on: May 22, 2008   Last Updated: November 01, 2010

Robert Frost’s well-known poem The Road Not Taken on first reading appears to be a pleasant reminiscence of an important moment in the life of the speaker, whom we assume to be the poet. He presents us first with the image of a walker in the woods who arrives at a fork in the trail or path and must choose a direction. Both pathways seem equally attractive; but being “one traveler,” he must choose to go either to the left or the right.

As the poem progresses, the image of a fork in the trail through the “yellow wood” changes into a metaphor. The decision facing the speaker become more significant than a simple “should I go left or right?” He stands and ponders his option. Both choices seem equally attractive and inviting. One path is lost from view when it bends into the undergrowth. He chooses the other which is “grassy and wanted wear”; though he admits that other direction was equally untrodden.

The image that became a metaphor now becomes a symbol. Early on he thought that he could come back another day and experience the other path. However, by this time we all realize that this is more than just a fork in the road but a life-shaping choice. Roads lead on to other intersections and further choices. A life cannot be stopped and started anew.

The significance of this choice is brought home forcefully in the fourth stanza when the speaker says,

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.

The first interpretation that leaps to mind is that Robert Frost is referring to his decision made early in life to become a poet and man of letters. That certainly is a road less traveled than deciding to become a businessman, farmer, lawyer, or politician. Here the individual can apply his or her own feelings about free will and determinism.

I enjoyed this poem more when I was a young man—before reading that Frost had in mind as the speaker not himself but his British friend and walking companion Edward Thomas. Biographer Lawrance Thompson tells us that Frost sent the poem to Thomas hoping the man would see in it a reflection of himself. Apparently Thomas never did.

A reader coming upon this poem could not, without footnoted guidance, understand that Frost was referring to someone named Edward Thomas. As D. H. Lawrance said, "Never trust the artist. Trust the Tale."

Frost had a

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