The Road Not Taken

Complete Text

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

Summary

The speaker stands in the woods, considering a fork in the road. Both ways are equally worn and equally overlaid with un-trodden leaves. The speaker chooses one, telling himself that he will take the other another day. Yet he knows it is unlikely that he will have the opportunity to do so. And he admits that someday in the future he will recreate the scene with a slight twist: He will claim that he took the less-traveled road.

Form

The Road Not Taken consists of four stanzas of five lines. The rhyme scheme is ABAAB; the rhymes are strict and masculine, with the notable exception of the last line (we do not usually stress the ence of difference). There are four stressed syllables per line, varying on an iambic tetrameter base.

Commentary

This has got to be among the best-known, most-often-misunderstood poems on the planet. Several generations of careless readers have turned it into a piece of Hallmark happy-graduation-son, seizethe-future puffery. Cursed with a perfect marriage of form and content, arresting phrase wrought from simple words, and resonant metaphor, it seems as if The Road Not Taken gets memorized without really being read. For this it has died the clichs un-death of trivial immortality.

But you yourself can resurrect it from zombie-hood by reading itnot with imagination, even, but simply with accuracy. Of the two roads the speaker says the passing there / Had worn them really about the same. In fact, both roads that morning lay / In leaves no step had trodden black. Meaning: Neither of the roads is less traveled by. These are the facts; we cannot justifiably ignore the reverberations they send through the easy aphorisms of the last two stanzas.

One of the attractions of the poem is its archetypal dilemma, one that we instantly recognize because each of us encounters it innumerable times, both literally and figuratively. Paths in the woods and forks in roads are ancient and deep-seated metaphors for the lifeline, its crises and decisions. Identical forks, in particular, symbolize for us the nexus of free will and fate: We are free to choose, but we do not really know beforehand what we are choosing between. Our route is, thus, determined by an accretion of choice and chance, and it is impossible to separate the two.

This poem does not advise. It does not say, When you come to a fork in the road, study the footprints and take the road less traveled by (or even, as Yogi Berra enigmatically quipped, When you come to a fork in the road, take it). Frosts focus is more complicated. First, there is no lesstraveled road in this poem; it isnt even an option. Next, the poem seems more concerned with the question of how the concrete present (yellow woods, grassy roads covered in fallen leaves) will look from a future vantage point.

The ironic tone is inescapable: I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence. The speaker anticipates his own future insincerityhis need, later on in life, to rearrange the facts and inject a dose of Lone Ranger into the account. He knows that he will be inaccurate, at best, or hypocritical, at worst, when he holds his life up as an example. In fact, he predicts that his future self will betray this moment of decision as if the betrayal were inevitable. This realization is ironic and poignantly pathetic. But the sigh is critical. The speaker will not, in his old age, merely gather the youth about him and say, Do what I did, kiddies. I stuck to my guns, took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. Rather, he may say this, but he will sigh first; for he wont believe it himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind will remain the image of yellow woods and two equally leafy paths.

Ironic as it is, this is also a poem infused with the anticipation of remorse. Its title is not The Road Less Traveled but The Road Not Taken. Even as he makes a choice (a choice he is forced to make if does not want to stand forever in the woods, one for which he has no real guide or definitive basis for decision-making), the speaker knows that he will second-guess himself somewhere down the lineor at the very least he will wonder at what is irrevocably lost: the impossible, unknowable Other Path. But the nature of the decision is such that there is no Right Pathjust the chosen path and the other path. What are sighed for ages and ages hence are not so much the wrong decisions as the moments of decision themselvesmoments that, one atop the other, mark the passing of a life. This is the more primal strain of remorse.

Thus, to add a further level of irony, the theme of the poem may, after all, be seize the day. But a more nuanced carpe diem, if you please.//

Type of Work and Year of Publication ......."The Road Not Taken" is a lyric poem with four stanzas of five lines each. (A lyric poem presents the feelings and emotions of the poet rather than telling a story or presenting a witty observation.)

The language is simple enough for a child to read, but the meaning is complex enough to foster scholarly debates and long essays. Henry Holt and Company published the poem in 1916 in a collection entitled Mountain Interval, Frost's first book printed in the United States. He had previously published two books in England.

Setting and Background Information

.......Frost sets the poem on a forest road on an autumn morning. He received inspiration for the poem from the landscape in rural Gloucestershire, England. While living in Great Britain from 1912 to 1915, Frost and his family had rented a cottage, Little Iddens, near Dymock, Gloucestershire, in the summer of 1914. Another writer, Edward Thomas (1878-1917), was staying with his family at a cottage half a mile away. Thomas was a literary critic, essayist, and nature writer who had favorably reviewed a volume of Frost's poetry and become one of his best friends. During their frequent walks in lanes, forests, and heather fields, they would discuss poetry and botany, noting the plants and flowers in the region. At the urging of Frost, Thomas began writing poetry and later achieved his greatest fame in this genre. Upon returning from their walks, Thomas often expressed a wish that they had taken an alternate trail or road to view its plants. In response, Frost began writing "The Road Not Taken," but he did not finish it until he and his family returned to the United States. Frost and Thomas continued to communicate until Thomas died fighting in World War I. In "The Road Not Taken," the path through the "yellow wood" could be anywhere, but Frost may have been picturing the Gloucestershire wilds when he began putting the poem on paper. . . . The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost With Stanza Summaries and Endnotes 1 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;1

Summary, Stanza 1

On the road of life, the speaker arrives at a point where he must decide which of two equally appealing (or equally intimidating) choices is the better one. He examines one choice as best he can, but the future prevents him from seeing where it leads.

2 Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,2 Because it was grassy and wanted wear;3 Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, Summary, Stanza 2

The speaker selects the road that appears at first glance to be less worn and therefore less traveled. This selection suggests that he has an independent spirit and does not wish to follow the crowd. After a moment, he concludes that both roads are about equally worn.

3 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. Summary, Stanza 3

Leaves cover both roads equally. No one on this morning has yet taken either road, for the leaves lie undisturbed. The speaker remains committed to his decision to take the road he had previously selected, saying that he will save the other road for another day. He observes, however, that he probably will never pass this way again and thus will never have an opportunity to take the other road.

4 I shall be telling this with a sigh4 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. Summary, Stanza 4

In years to come, the speaker says, he will be telling others about the choice he made. While doing so, he will sigh either with relief that he made the right choice or with regret that he made the wrong choice. Whether right or wrong, the choice will have had a significant impact on his life. Notes 1..The road beyond the bend may represent the future or the unknown, neither of which can be perceived. 2..Here, Frost uses personification, saying that the road has a claim. 3..Personification occurs here also if wanted means desired. No personification occurs, however, if wanted means lacked. 4..Sigh can indicate relief or happiness, or it can indicate regret or sorrow. The interpretation of its meaning is up to the reader.

. Rhyme Scheme

.....The rhyme scheme of the poem is as follows: (1) abaab, (2) cdccd, (3) efeef, (4) ghggh. .....All of the end rhymes are masculinethat is, each consists of a single syllable. (You may have noticed that the last word of the poem, difference, has more than one syllable. However, only the last syllable completes the rhyme with hence in line 22. Therefore, masculine rhyme occurs.)

Which Is the Road Not Taken?

.......You may have noticed that the title of the poem can refer to either road. Here's why: The speaker takes the road "less traveled" (line 19). In other words, he chooses the road not taken by most other travelers. However, when he chooses this less-traveled road, the other road then becomes the road not taken.

. Themes

Individualism

.......The speaker chooses to go his own way, taking the road less traveled (line 19).

Caution

.......Before deciding to take the "road less traveled" (line 19), the speaker takes time to consider the other road. He says, "[L]ong I stood / And looked down one as far as I could" (lines 3-4).

Commitment

.......The speaker does not have second thoughts after making his decision.

Accepting a Challenge

.......It may be that the road the speaker chooses is less traveled because it presents trials or perils. Such challenges seem to appeal to the speaker. .

Author Information .......Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Francisco, California, where he spent his childhood. In 1885, after his father died of tuberculosis, the Frosts moved to Massachusetts. There, Robert graduated from high school, sharing top honors with a student he would later marry, Elinor White. .......Frost attended Dartmouth and Harvard, married Miss White in 1895, worked farms, and taught school. In his spare time, he wrote poetry. Disappointed with the scant attention his poems received, he moved with his wife to Great Britain to present his work to readers there. Publishers liked his work and printed his first book of poems, A Boys Will, in 1913, and a second poetry collection, North of Boston, in 1914. The latter book was published in the United States in 1915. .......Having established his reputation, Frost returned to the United States in 1915 and bought a small farm in Franconia, N.H. To supplement his income from the farm and his poetry, he taught at universities. Between 1916 and 1923, he published two more books of poetrythe second one, New Hampshire, winning the 1923 Pulitzer Prize. He went on to win three more Pulitzer Prizes and was invited to recite his poem The Gift Outright at President John F. Kennedys inauguration in January 1961. Frost died in Boston two years later. One may regard him as among the greatest poets of his generation. .

Study Questions and Essay Topics 1. Do you think Frost intended the y in yellow (line 1) to suggest the diverging roads? 2. What is undergrowth (line 5)? 3. Does curiosity motivate the speaker when he makes his choice? 4. Write an essay about a time when you took a less-traveled road. 5. Write an essay that interprets the last line of the poem.