by Jacob Mari

Created on: December 27, 2009

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost, has become one of the most recognizable pieces of American peotry.  The final lines have become a slogan for non-conformists and teachers attempting to open the minds of their students.  However, the author’s implied pride in his choice of “the road less traveled” is only a small part of the message.

"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    
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

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."

The two roads are indeed two separate choices facing the speaker.  He stands considering the options, knowing he can only take one.  There is little difference between the roads from where he stands, and decides to take the one that has “perhaps the better claim.”  Although, as he passes he notes that the two roads are “really about the same.”  The two paths here represent two similar choices, neither particularly more appealing then the other, but still only one can be chosen.

"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."

The speaker is regretful for the road he didn’t take.  Both choices are desirable, but only one can be traveled now.  And so he “kept the first for another day,” hoping to return and take the path he was forced to leave behind.  But he knows better.  He understands the nature of his journey and doubts, despite his hope, that he will ever have the chance.  The road he did not choose remains a mystery to him, bringing forever to his mind the possibilities he will never experience.

"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."

And thus the speaker’s regret far in the future, when even the hope of traversing that other road has gone.  He knows the impact of his choice, looking back upon the diverging road.  He is proud to have taken the one less traveled, but the difference is neither good nor bad.  The difference is simply the two destinations, one lived, the other not.  After all, the title is not "The Road Less Traveled," but is instead "The Road Not Taken."

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