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. I had read this poem back in elementary school, but I thought it was fitting to revisit now that I am a senior with new paths opened to me, similar to the speaker in the poem. There is a sense of ambivalence in the opening sentences of the first stanza when it reads “And sorry I could not travel both/ And be one traveler.” Here the speaker is presented with a decision, but of equal weight, and the speaker struggles to choose which path to take. He acknowledges there is only one of him but two roads that were nearly equal as is illustrated in the phrase “Then took the other, as just as fair” and therefore insinuating that the paths are equal. Though the speaker makes a concession saying that “perhaps the better claim/ Because it was grassy and wanted wear,” the speaker quickly corrects himself in saying that though they both, “had worn them really about the same.” As seniors in high school, the college decision process has been a fork in the road like the one the speaker of the poem encounters. Our yellow woods can be anything really that serve as either distractions, obstacles, or people and things that pull our decisions towards one road or another. Yet like the two paths that diverge, these yellow woods work to separate our decisions. And like the speaker realizes, he cannot take both paths without denying the other. Yet most importantly, the speaker acknowledges once one path is taken, there are no returns, second chances, retracing footsteps. Yet despite the many qualities that the paths share, so that the speaker even acknowledges “…passing there/ Had worn them really about the same,” the author still decides to travel the path that has less traveled upon, perhaps representing a denial against convention, societal norms, the general prototypical path to place one’s footsteps. Instead, it seems like rather than following the model of others, the speaker has decided to venture and discover his own purpose without abiding by the example set by others. Moreover, the speaker also highlights the difficulty of making choices and the consequences of them. Though this poem seems inspirational in the sense that there’s a degree of individuality and trust behind one’s decisions, this poem can also be viewed as the inability of humanity to avoid certain decisions or to make incorrect ones and thus suffer the vulnerability of moving through life carrying the burden of a decision that cannot be altered. The even greater aspect of this poem is that in accepting one path, one is therefore denying all the bounties and privileges another has the offer. Thus throughout Thanksgiving break, I was thinking to myself, what am I thankful for? All the things I’ve been given, all the wonderful people that have either stumbled into my life by mistake or I’ve accepted them through time, I’ve considered how much I value and respect these people, but yet while I was reflecting I also thought about the people who I no longer have relationships with, those that I dislike, those that I miss. In accepting others as my friends and families, I’ve also had to reject others in order to make time and sacrifice for these people, but what if I’m rejecting something say a person, a possession, a path, that could be beneficial to me? So over Thanksgiving, yes, I’ve learned to be thankful, but I’ve also learned to open my heart to other people that I haven’t met since summer, that I haven’t seen since three years ago. I’ve allowed these people to come back into my life, but at the same time I’ve missed seeing those from school, those at work. And again, I am presented with a similar parallel—when Thanksgiving Break is over, do I push those that I haven’t seen in years away again because I become absorbed in something else? Why are my paths always a fork in a road never capable of coming together? Perhaps there is a theme of doubles in nature. The rejection and expulsion of one, inevitably leads to the acceptance of another.