“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is a metaphor for life and making hard choices. Frost writes about being in the woods and having to choose which path at the fork in the road. He then looks back on that moment and thinks about his decision. The speaker doesn’t actually take the road less traveled by like he says at the end of the poem because textual evidence earlier in the poem states that the roads are the same.

In the last stanza of the poem the speaker says, “I shall be telling this with a sigh… I took the road less traveled by and that has made all the difference.” He almost seems to regret his decision. He says he took the road less traveled by and he is almost ashamed of his decision because of evidence earlier in the poem states both paths were the same yet, he says the one he choose to go down was less traveled by. The speaker says in the second stanza, “Had worn them really about the same.” Both paths had been traveled the same amount of times and the same amount of people. This means that one can’t be more or less traveled by. In the third stanza the speaker thinks, “And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black.” This means that the leaves on the path weren’t step on which means no one has walked on either path. If no one has walked on either path then one path can’t be or less traveled because no one has traveled either.

The speaker is embarrassed with his choice and decides to tell people the other option. This connects to be personally because I have made decisions and I have been embarrassed with my choice so I decide to tell people I different story. When the speaker says, “ Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” (in the 1^st stanza) I can relate this felling of, what should I do should I do this or this? What is going to happen? Frost probably fells the same way. 

1. The Road Not Taken

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;         5   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,         10   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.         15   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.         20