The Road Not Taken

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see The Road Not Taken (disambiguation).

"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.

The poem's last lines, where the narrator declares that taking the road "less traveled by" has "made all the difference," can be seen as a declaration of the importance of independence and personal freedom. "The Road Not Taken" seems to illustrate that once one takes a certain road, there's no turning back. Although one might change paths later on, the past cannot be changed. It can be seen as showing that choice is very important, and is a thing to be considered.

There is also a possible ironic interpretation of the poem - the narrator admits in the second and third stanzas that both paths may be equally worn and equally leaf-covered, and it is only in his future recollection that he calls one road "less traveled by." In this interpretation, the poem is about rationalizing our decisions. Frost intended the poem as a gentle jab at his great friend and fellow poet Edward Thomas, and seemed amused at the misinterpretation of the poem as inspirational. ^[1]

Randall Thompson set several of Frost's poems, including The Road Not Taken, into choral arrangements. Together they are known as "Frostiana".

[edit] 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;

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,

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.

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.