The Road Not Taken by 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; 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.

Robert Frost brings up an age-old question of: what is the right path to choose in life? Although some may argue that there is no real right or wrong answer, as there may truly be no right or wrong path, Frost suggests doing the unexpected, the uncertain, and going down the path that is not always chosen.

He brings up the image of a fork in the road, “Two roads diverged.” Immediately you can imagine yourself standing at this crossroad, unsure of which side to choose, “sorry I could not travel both.” Frost adds this line, I think, because most people would consider the idea of wanting to know what awaits them at the end of either road. It’s kind of like those choose your own adventure novels, like the ones by R.L. Stine. Where a scenario would be set and after a few paragraphs you would have to decide whether to follow the creepy monster to see where his lair is, or to run away screaming in the other direction. I know I’m guilty of trying to flip back and forth to try and find out what kind of outcome would occur at the end of each scenario. It’s human nature to want to know exactly what is going to happen.

Frost writes, “I stood and looked down one as far as I could,” his way of saying that we all try to crane our necks to see what is coming up ahead without actually going there to see it. He continues by describing the road as “bent in the undergrowth,” making it clear that he cannot completely see where this road is going. He decides to take the 2nd road, “just as fair” and “grassy and wanted wear.” The idea of this second road is that it’s the more predictable of the two. It’s the path that most everyone chooses, which is why it is worn down from constant travel. The ideal choice for most people is to take the more predictable one. Most people, myself (for the most part) included, are afraid of the unknown. We are afraid of what we don’t know, what we can’t see and where we will end up.

In the third stanza, Frost claims that “I kept the first for another day!” and then recants by saying that “Yet knowing how way leads to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.” We all have that habit. Like when we resolve to start losing weight at the beginning of the next week… that week turns into ‘well, maybe next week,’ and on and on until we realize that we never really went through what we promised ourselves in the beginning. Frost is true to himself in saying that “I doubted if I should ever come back” because in “knowing how way leads to way” he knows that life happens and we are sometimes unable to return to that road in life where we wanted to try something new and different.

The last stanza of the poem has a resonating impact on me.

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.

 Frost speaks of looking back fondly on that moment in time where he decided to do something that was unexpected, and how much of a difference it has made on his life. It will always remind me of the moment when my husband and I (who were only dating at the time) decided to have a child together. We were young, only 21 years old, but it was something we both wanted. We knew it would be hard and the idea of starting our own family and living on our own was frightening, but we did it anyways. We took a chance. And I can tell you that having my son, Aiden, was the best decision, the best path, that I could have taken. It’s been hard and unexpected. But knowing that Aiden is one of the best decisions i’ve ever made makes the uncertainty worth it.

If there was anything i’d like Aiden to know about life in connection to Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, it would be to follow your heart and choose to do something unexpected. Sometimes that road may lead you some place that you weren’t expecting, but it’s the decisions in life that make us who we are. You shouldn’t have to follow the crowd just because you know where that path is going to end. Try something new. Something different. Something that, at the end of your life, you can look back on and say “I’m glad I did that.” Good or bad, it will make you who you were meant to be.