Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost - ‘The Road Not Taken’

I would have to say that my favorite poem by Robert Frost is ‘The Road Not Taken’.  I think that this is one of the best-known and most often misread poems on the planet.  This poem is something that we face every day in this walk of life.  Paths in the woods and forks in the roads are ancient and innate metaphors for the lifeline, its predicaments and choices.  The forks symbolize the connection of free will and fate.  We are free to choose, but we don’t really know in advance what we are choosing between.  Our path is decided by a growth of choice and chance; it is impossible to separate the two.  This poem is not giving any advice.  In this poem there is no less-traveled road and it is never even a choice in the poem. The poem does have an original strain of remorse.  I think that this poem is more concerned with the choosing the right road and not regretting or second guessing yourself.  Once we choose a path in life it is then inescapable.  I often say “If I could go back in time, I would have not done this or that.”  We have all said this at some point in our life but once you make a choice and act on it, there is no turning back.  We all know that we will second-guess ourselves somewhere down the line.  In this poem the speaker knows that he will second-guess himself later on in life or he may even wonder what the Other path was like.  The nature of the decision is such that there is no Right Path; there is just the chosen path and the other path.  What are breathed for ages and ages later are not so much the wrong choices as the moments of the choices themselves.  I believe the theme of this story is to “seize the day.”