The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost (PC: Encyclopedia Britannica) 

About the poet: One of the most loved of all American poets, Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. He lived a life plagued with losses after losses that left a deep impact on him. Like his mother, Frost too suffered with bouts of depression and his sister and daughter had to be institutionalized due to mental problems.

Frost's poetry, at first glance may seem simple and prose-like in nature, it gets more complex and layered as you dig deeper. His poems make you feel as if he is talking to you personally. There are no larger than life, grandiose declarations like in Wordsworth's or Shelley's poems, rather, he is calmer, more grounded and invites you to make your own opinion.

Case in point, The Road not taken. He is as ambiguous as he can be. He keeps contradicting himself throughout the poem and we are left with mixed feelings about his choice. Was he happy? Was he sad? Did he regret taking the decision? It is for us to decide.

Summary: The poet tells us that once he had to make a choice between two options. Two roads lay before him and he had to choose one of them. He wished he could travel on both the roads at the same time but he, of course, couldn't. Both roads looked almost identical yet one of them was more worn than the other. They both looked beautiful on that autumn morning, covered with colourful leaves of the fall. He finally decided to take one of the roads. He feels that the decision changed his life forever.

                                                                The Road Not Taken

                                                                                            --Robert Frost

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;

PC: Chicago Now

Meanings:

Diverged- Split, bifurcated

Undergrowth- bushes and shrubs

Yellow wood- Autumn season

The poet speaks of the time when he stood at the place where the road he had been walking on, split into two. This however, we may understand is his way of comparing the two roads to the choices we have to make in life. There are always many options connected to each decision we have yet we can only choose one.

And the poet here feels sorry that he could not travel on both roads at the same time. This means that the two options in-front of him were equally attractive and he wanted to choose both. He stood at this spot for a long time. Contemplating and mulling over the decision. He looked down at one of the two roads and his eyes followed it as far as it took a turn and got lost in the shrubs and bushes.

“Yellow woods” shows that he had to make this choice in the autumn of his life, i.e. during his adulthood.

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,

Meaning:

Wanted wear- had not been much used. Wanted here means lacked. This is also a poetic device, alliteration where the sound of “w” has been repeated with Wanted Wear.

Though the poet had been looking at one road, he took the other one. The road he took looked exactly the same as the other. As beautiful as the other one. Equally brimming with possibilities. Yet there was a slight distinction or difference. The road the poet took was better as it had been less travelled upon.

When a path is used often, grass stops growing there and a naturally cleared road emerges after sometime. The poet took the grassy one which looked as if fewer people had walked on it. This shows the adventurous spirit of the poet. He wanted to do something few others had done.

The conflict comes now. In the previous line he calls the road he took grassy and pristine. Now he says that the road looked the same as the other and MAY have been used often by people. This is the first contradiction that Frost brings into the poem.    

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.

Meaning:

Trodden: walked on, used, stepped on

So now we know it was morning time. And both roads were covered with grass and leaves of autumnal colours. The leaves looked fresh as if nobody had yet walked upon and crushed them. Fallen leaves if tread upon a lot, turn darker in shade.

The poet made a decision and took a path. He consoled himself that he had the choice of coming back for the other road if this one proved difficult to travel on.

Yet he also knows, that one decision leads to another and then another and the previous chances get lost in time. He knew he would not be able to come back.

This is the same with all of us. When a decision is made, it is difficult to come back and choose the other option. We have to stick to our decisions and make what we can of them. Such is life.

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.

Meaning:

Hence- later, from now

The ambiguity crops up now. The first line is open to many interpretations. “Sigh” can be regretful or an expression of satisfaction. The poet says that years from now he would be telling his family or friends about the time he had to make a choice. Two roads (options) lay in front of him and he took the road that had been taken by few (the option that many would not take) and that decision has made all the difference in his life.

That decision has changed and moulded his life and we do not know whether it was for the good or the bad.