The Road not Taken

-         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.

Analysis

In the first line, the speaker is telling us about the yellow woods from where two roads were diverging. In the next line he says that he wanted to travel both the roads but it was impossible and so he had to choose one of them. He is thinking hard about which road he should choose. He tries to see one road but it is not as visible as there is a bend where the small plants and greenery of woods block his view. Here we can say that the poet is actually trying to peep into his future but it is not clearly visible. He can only see the path and nothing else. After that he decides to take another path. The other road is described “as just as fair”. Reading this line we can say that the road is attractive. So he thinks he has made the right choice. The path through which he walked is grassy and doesn't look worn as it was not travelled much. “Wanted wear” is used as personification. Wanted wear here may mean that there was something which was lacking. Now when we understand that what the poet wants to say about the path, he changes his decision and admits that maybe they was equal after all. The passing there in the ninth line refers to traffic most probably which is on foot just like our speaker that may have worn the paths down. Now its morning and the speaker is the first to walk on this path this morning. Paths are covered with leaves and are not black as they are not crushed. He is not happy with his decision as he regrets by saying he will come back to the one he missed. The line thirteenth is emphatic as it starts with ‘Oh’ and ends with an exclamatory (!) sign. Regretting his decision, he realises that his hopes to come back and walk on the other road can be foolish or stupid. The speaker knows how one road can lead to another and then another until we end up far from where we had started. He thinks that now he cannot come back and take another path if he wishes. At this stage, we can add a metaphorical meaning like in life we take decisions and then regret and sometimes our decisions take us to other decisions and it is impossible for us to arrive back to the original decision. Now we can say that the story which speaker has told us will be told many years later and so it is important but he would be telling it with a sigh. Sighs can be of many types and we can’t say what kind of sigh he will be having while telling his story. The speaker’s choice is probably going to be important for his future but we can’t say whether he will be happy or not. The lines “two roads diverged in a wood” are repeated but there is addition of “I”. This repetition can be called the conclusion of the poem as we can say that he is regretting and is summing up saying that he took the road less travelled by. In the starting of the poem, he said he took the road which was less worn and both the roads were equal but now he discloses that the road which was less worn was the less travelled.