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"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference," the last three lines of Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken have always intrigued and enchanted me from the moment I first read them. So of course, when I heard that we were explicating a poem for English class, I felt compelled to choose this one, and so I did.

I suppose it would make sense to start with the first stanza, therefore, I shall. In the first stanza, what I think he is trying to do is compare decisions in general to a traveler choosing what road to take, like the road of life, almost. In my opinion, he's saying that you need to be careful about decisions, because they make a big impact on your life. When he says that he wishes he could travel both roads, I feel like I can kind of relate to him. I mean, I think everyone wishes that they could see how their life would be if they had done something differently, and when he says that he looks down each road, it makes me think of trying to visualize what each outcome might be, before actually making the decision, a very logical approach.

In stanza number two, I think he's saying that in this particular instance, he chose the other one because it seemed to be more interesting, even though both he thought that both outcomes would have equally been good. I came to this conclusion because he said that both paths were "really about the same," but the one he chose "was grassy and wanted wear," To me, the grassy one sounds better, and maybe a like little more of an adventure!

Now we move on to the third stanza. I feel like the second stanza and the first two lines in the third stanza are saying a lot of the same things. Those two lines seem to say that there were no obvious flaws with either outcome, or "road," and that they both looked quite nice. In the next few lines, however, he says how he will come back to the other road another day, even though he knows it's not true. I agree with this statement. Too many people make bad decisions, telling themselves that they'll fix it later, even though they know that they're lying to themselves. I think it's sad.

Last, but not least, I will try to explain the fourth stanza, and I won't deny it, this last one is my absolute favorite line of poetry ever, so far. A lot of people debate about whether the sigh in his poem is a happy sigh, or a sad sigh. I think it's both. I think that he's happy that his life turned out the way it did, but a little bit sat that he'll never know how else it could have turned out if he took the other road. As for the other lines in the last stanza, I think he's saying pretty much summing up the poem by saying that each decision you make can leave a huge impact on your life, so be careful!

Robert Frost was an amazing poet, and all of his poems were simply astounding, but I think that The Road Not Taken was his best. The statement it makes of how you need to be careful about your decisions is a very powerful one, and the rhyme scheme is fantastic! I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

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