~ Road Not Taken ~

~ The Road Not Taken ~
(Robert Frost, 1915)

The Road Not Taken" is a poem by Robert Frost, published in 1916 in his collection Mountain Interval. It is the first poem in the volume, and the first poem Frost had printed in italics [1]

This poem is usually interpreted as an assertion of individualism, but critic Lawrence Thompson has argued that it is a slightly mocking satire on a perennially hesitant walking partner of Frost's who always wondered what would have happened if he had chosen their path differently.[2]

For better description let’s reveal the hidden meaning in each stanza of this Great Robert Frost’s Poem.

The first Stanza – Prolog to describe the situation

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth.

The poem consists of four Stanzas, in the first stanza the speaker speaks about the position, where he has been walking in the woods and finds two roads must be decided to be traveled. He would like to take both but he can’t, for long time he thinks while looks down the roads and trying to make decision.


The second Stanza – make decision

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.

In the second stanza the speaker tells us that he has made decision to take one path between two, which he predicts as the better claim, because it’s less traffics and more promising as described in the word “Grassy”. After passing that path he realizes that the two are have similarity, but it’s not the same, asserted by the word “about the same”.


The Third Stanza – description of the Roads

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.

In this stanza the speaker’s still trapped in the cogitation about those two roads, there might be differences, he wishes has any time to travel one road he had left, but he is uncertain if he would have plenty of time to doing so.

The Forth Stanza – the point

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.

The last stanza of this poem seems to be the conclusion, or the result of the journey aforementioned by the speaker. the speaker uses the word ‘sigh’ that means take long deep breath as sign of relief, but it can also mean regret, sadness, tiredness. if it is ‘sigh relief’ the speaker says that the journey is nice and he is glad with the road has taken. But if it is ‘sigh’ regret, tiredness, it means that the speaker is regretful by the choice he made. Then the key word would be in the phrase ‘all the difference’. It’s not clear whether the difference is good side or bad side.

By the word “all the different” I think the poet will assert his argument that whatever the choice made by us it will turn out our future with its own end, including, risks and consequences. that’s all about life, that seem to be the mystery of choices that must be taken, and whatever decision we made we will take its ‘fruits’.

So Individually, I interpret that this poem is about the description of life consequences. Life is about choices, in which we never known before have lived it, but it needs vivid selection before decide. It also asserts that whatsoever decisions we made in this life is in our responsibility and may left its consequences whether it is good or bad.

We are the wanderer in this marvelous world, who is endowed mind, brain, feeling, and others ‘weapon’ including Guidance to deals those choices and the choices are really ours.


[1] www.wikipedia.com
[2] http://poetry.suite101.ಕಂ