Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (1874-1963)

The poet has come to a fork in a path in the woods. It is fall, and the leaves are turning colors. He's unsure which way to go, and wishes he could go both ways. He looks down one path as far as he can see, but then he decides to take the other. He thinks the path he decides to take is not quite as worn as the other one, but really, the paths are about the same, and the fallen leaves on both look pretty fresh.

The speaker reflects on how he plans to take the road that he didn't take another day, but suspects that he probably won't ever come back. Instead, far off in the future, he'll be talking about how his decision was final and life changing.

The speaker uses the metaphor of the two roads to say one thing, while Frost humorously uses the speaker as a metaphor to say something very different.

 He has difficulty making a choice and that he is regretfully certain that he will eventually be unhappy with the choice that he does make. When he first considers the two roads, he sees one as more difficult, perhaps even a bit menacing (“it bent in the undergrowth”), and the other as being more pleasant (“it was grassy and wanted wear”). Even in taking the second path, though, he reconsiders and sees them both as equally worn and equally covered with leaves. Changing his mind again, he believes that in the future he will look back, realize that he did take the “less traveled” road after all, but regret “with a sigh” that that road turned out to have made “all the difference” in making his life unhappy. The speaker believes that in the future he will be haunted by this earlier moment when he made the wrong choice and by the unfulfilled potential of “the road not taken.”

"The Road Not Taken" centers on the concept of choice. The path that the speaker is walking on is splitting in two directions, and he has to decide which way to go. This path is not just in the woods, but also represents a decision in his life. Something in his life is changing, forcing him to make a choice. Yet he has a really hard time deciding – one moment, he thinks one way is better, the next, both paths are about the same. Whether or not he has a reason why the choice he makes is better, he has to make it. And that choice changes his life.

Questions about Choices

1.  What do you think the fork in the road could represent in the speaker's life?

2.  Do you think the speaker is happy with his choice or not? Why?

3.  Which road do you think you would have taken if you were the speaker? Why?

4.  What do you think the differences between the two roads in this poem are, if any?

  

Some think the “road less traveled” leads to tragedy and regret, while others believe Frost celebrates nonconformity and individuality.

The best loved of the American poets; Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in USA. He is considered “The Voice of America”. His poems begin in delight and in wisdom.

Robert Frost finds himself at a point where the road splits into two. He must make a decision. He chooses the grassy and less travelled path. The other road is more conventional, risk free and well-traveled. The poet realizes that he can’t travel on both roads, so he keeps it for another day. He says that perhaps he may use the more conventional path some time in future, but it is not possible to start the journey afresh. It seems to be a characteristic of Robert Frost to express doubt while making revolutionary decisions.

The striking feature of Frosts’ poems is the presentation of conflicts. Here conflict is between the right choice and wrong choice. We should always have the courage to choose the right way even if it is rough and thorny. The poem makes us think about choice we must make in life. All of us reach a crucial point in life when we must make a right choice. That choice determines our destiny. The poem inspires us to face the challenging realities in life. The chief theme of his poetry is an ambiguous relationship with nature. He is interested in the paradox of life. The phrase “some were ages and age hence” refers to distant future. Here “sigh” should not be taken as regret. However, Frost is very optimistic. He looks into distant future. A small courageous step makes a big difference. It can lead to a great discovery, success, prosperity, or happiness. However, the line “… And that has made all the difference” is not clear. The poet beautifully leaves this to the imagination of the readers; Ambiguity is one of the striking features of Frost in poetry.

The Road Not Taken’ is more than a poem about someone trying to decide which road he’s going to take on a stroll through the woods. It is a poem about the journey of life. The two roads diverged in a yellow wood forest symbolizing a person’s life. The narrator’s choice about which road to take represents the different decisions we sometimes must make and how those decisions will affect the future. Think of the expression, ‘down the road’, that we often use to describe something that might happen months or even years from now, and you will see how Frost is making the connection between life and traveling. Frost captures the uncertainty about making decisions. Our natural desire to know what will happen because of the decisions we make is in the first stanza of the poem:

‘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’

Here, Frost uses the bend in the road as a metaphor for what the narrator wishes he could see but ultimately can’t make out in the undergrowth. The narrator eventually decides to take the other road because it really does not matter. Whichever path he chooses, he has no way of knowing where he is going to end up.

The only difference between the two roads is that the one the narrator chooses in the second stanza is ‘grassy and wanted wear’; in other words, it doesn’t look like anyone’s taken it before or in a long time. At this point in the poem, Frost tries to encourage readers to overcome the fear of the unknown: someone must be the first person to try a new thing.

Someone little not inclined to follow the crowd. Almost immediately, however, he seems to contradict his own judgment: “Though as for that the passing there/ had worn them really about the same.” The poet appears to imply that the decision is based on evidence that is, or comes close to being, an illusion; the contradictions continue. He decides to save the first, (perhaps) more traveled route for another day but then confesses that he does not think it probable that he will return. This implies that this seemingly casual and inconsequential choice is likely to be a crucial commitment. In the final stanza, the traveler says that he will be “telling this with a sigh,” which may connote regret. His choice, in any event, “has made all the difference”. The tone of this stanza, coupled with the title, strongly suggests that the traveler, if not regretting his choice, at least laments the possibilities that the need to make a choice.

Had Frost had a particular and irrevocable choice of his own? If so, what feeling in this poem of mixed feelings, should be regarded as dominant? There is no way of identifying such a specific decision from the evidence of the poem itself. Although a prejudice exists in favor of identifying the “I” of the poem with the author in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the speaker may not be Frost at all. On more than one occasion the poet claimed that this poem was about his friend Edward Thomas, a man inclined to indecisiveness out of a strong and (as Frost thought) amusing habit of dwelling on the irrevocability of decisions. If so, the reference in the poem’s final stanza to “telling” of the experience “with a sigh”/somewhere ages and ages hence” might be read not only as the boast of Robert Frost, but also as a perpetual revelation of Thomas, also a fine poet. What is clear is that the speaker is, at least, a person like Thomas in some respects (though there may well be some of Frost in him also).

Critics of this poem are likely always to argue whether it is an affirmation of the crucial nature of the choices people must make on the road of life or a gentle satire on the sort of temperament that always insists on struggling with such choices. The extent of the poets’ sympathy with the traveler also remains an open question. Frost composed this poem in four five-line stanzas with only two end rhymes in each stanza (abaab). The flexible iambic meter has four strong beats to the line. Of the technical achievements in “The Road Not Taken”, one in particular shows Frost’s skill at enforcing meaning through form. The poem ends:

‘Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—/ I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference.’

The indecision of the speaker and his divided state of mind is heightened by the repetition of “I” split by the line division and emphasized by the rhyme and pause. It is an effect possible only in a rhymed and metrical poem and thus a good argument for the continuing viability of traditional forms.

The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost is a well-known poem about the journey of life. This lesson will cover a brief summary of the poem, analyze its major theme, and test your knowledge with a quick quiz.

Poem Summary

Have you ever found yourself caught between a rock and a hard place, trying to make a difficult decision? Maybe you've had to choose between two equally desirable things, like following a career path to become an astronaut or a doctor. You may have considered the different paths of study or activity each choice would lead you down. We've all been faced with challenging decisions in our lives, and sometimes the difficulty of making those decisions arises from the fear of not knowing if what we choose is right, or what will happen as a result of our choice.

Well, the famous American poet, Robert Frost, once wrote a poem that describes this feeling exactly. 'The Road Not Taken', first published in 1916, is perhaps Frost's most famous poem. The final lines in particular, 'Two roads diverged in a yellow wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference', are often quoted and referred to as inspirational words that challenge us to overcome obstacles in life.

The poem describes someone standing at a fork, or turning point, in a road in the woods, trying to decide which path he's going to take. He looks down one road as far as he can see, and after thinking for another minute, decides to take the other one because it looks like nobody's been that way yet, and he's curious about where it leads.

He thinks maybe he might come back another day and try out the other path but he has a feeling that the road he's chosen will lead him to new places and discoveries, and he probably won't be back. He thinks wistfully about that road, the road not taken, and where he might have wound up if he'd gone that way instead. Part of him regrets his decision, but he also realizes that the things he's seen and the places he's gone because of the direction he chose has made him who he is.

Theme

'The Road Not Taken' is more than a poem about someone trying to decide which road he's going to take on a stroll through the woods. It's actually a poem about the journey of life. The two roads diverged in a yellow wood symbolize a person's life. The narrator's choice about which road to take represents the different decisions we sometimes have to make and how those decisions will affect the future. Think of the expression, 'down the road', that we often use to describe something that might happen months or even years from now, and you'll see how Frost is making the connection between life and traveling.

Frost captures the uncertainty about making decisions and our natural desire to know what will happen as a result of the decisions we make in the first stanza of the poem:

'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'

Here, Frost uses the bend in the road as a metaphor for what the narrator wishes he could see but ultimately can't make out in the undergrowth. The narrator eventually decides to take the other road because it really doesn't matter; whichever path he chooses, he has no way of knowing where he's going to end up.

The only difference between the two roads is that the one the narrator chooses in the second stanza is 'grassy and wanted wear'; in other words, it doesn't look like anyone's taken it before or in a long time. At this point in the poem, Frost tries to encourage readers to overcome the fear of the unknown: someone has to be the first person to try a new thing. Just think about what has happened when men and women have boldly gone where no men and women have gone before. Without that kind of determination, Christopher Columbus wouldn't have 'discovered' America, and Neil Armstrong wouldn't have walked on the moon.

In the last stanza of the poem, we learn that the narrator never does go back to check out that other road because the one he did choose took him in a different direction. He reflects on this now and wonders about that choice:

'I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence'