How To Take "The Road Not Taken"

           Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” At first it may seem to be about making hard decisions in life and traveling on less used paths. However, this is a very simplistic view that is only supported by the last stanza, and disregards the meaning found in the rest of the poem. The title itself places significance on the road (or decision) which the narrator did not choose. It was not named “The Road Less Traveled By,” which is the path he ended up taking. This would suggest the focus of the poem is the road the narrator did not travel, or the fact that he did not take it and is still thinking about it. That the roads themselves are representative of decisions made in life is a logical assumption and is supported throughout each of the five-line stanzas. The feeling of musing and dwelling on things long past resonates in every part of this poem. Not only in words, but in meter and rhyme as well. With this in mind, we can further analyze the specific use of words used and their placement in the work.

            To understand the importance of words and form in this poem, they must be observed first hand.

                        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. (Frost)

Above, words are marked that are significant due to their placement, specific meanings, and the sound they contribute to the reading of it. One of the first things that can be seen to have special meaning in certain places is the meter. It is written in iambic tetrameter, but does not strictly follow the iambic form. For example the first two words, “two roads” are both stressed. They are stressed again in line eighteen. They would be pronounced equally. This would support claims in the poem that the roads are equal, one is not better than the other. Anapests also occur in the piece. It shows most noticeably when the narrator muses on how there really was not a better choice between the two roads. However, it is also seen throughout the poem and breaks the basic rhythm of the iambs. When the words are spoken this way they force the reader to slow down and say those lines in a way that they are musing and seem to be going back and forth in their in their speech much as the text does.

            The rhyme scheme plays an important role as well in “The Road Not Taken.” Each of the four quintains follows the same pattern: ABAAB. The couplets in each stanza sound like a pause when read aloud. This makes the narrator sound as though they are musing in the middle of the each stanza. The rhyme scheme itself fits the strange back and forth uncertainty. They made a decision, but they can’t help but wonder if it was the right one.

            Often a repeated word has significance in a poem, so too do the words that begin a line. When the two combine it bears certain implications that should not be ignored. There is a clear case of this with the word “and” in Frost’s poem. In the beginning stanza written above, the first words of each line are made a different color to demonstrate the pointed commonality there. Not only is “and” repeated as the first word in the middle three lines, but they are also placed between “two” and “to”. This can easily be seen as more emphasis on “two”. Then to make sure you did not miss the significance of “and” the first three times, it is repeated as the first word in line seven, eleven, and twenty. The last two times “and” is used in the poem, it happens to appear at the beginning of the third stanza and the end of the fourth stanza. One noting the equality of the roads, the other claiming they were different. With “and” being a word that connects two others, it is no wonder why it plays such a role in this poem musing about two roads. The word “and” is also used repeatedly when trying to decide between different options and is repeated more often when the person is indecisive.

            Other words placed strategically within the lines of “The Road Not Taken” convey a deeper meaning and play further into the theme of wishy-washy past musings. In line five, “bent” is used as part of the description for the road the narrator did not take. This is, by itself, a fine description of a road. However when another meaning of the word is considered, like determined or resolved, it is given deeper meaning. The narrator is not resolved in his decision. He thinks back on it much later and wonders if perhaps he should have chosen different path. In this case, he has not chosen to be determined or resolved with other decisions. The “sigh” is another important moment in the thoughts of the narrator. It is where he decides that he will claim the path he chose was the better choice. It is where he masks his indecision. Without the sigh the last lines make no sense in conjunction with the rest of the poem. It would be illogical to say he chose one road over the other because it was supposedly less used and that it made a difference. He had previously stated multiple times the two roads were equal in their untred states. A sigh is often the result of prolonged musing and the over thinking of solitary subjects.

            The speaker tends to make multiple contradictions to himself in this thoughtful poem. It seems to start in the second stanza when he makes the decision to go down one road. First it is stated that the one that is chosen is not as worn a path. Then in the same stanza he admits that they are really worn the same amount. In fact, no one has even stepped on the leaves. Both were pristine. The next stanza starts with continuing this claim that they are equal, then the last stanza ends with the narrator claiming that he “took the one less traveled by” (19).  The narrator also makes claims that he left the other road to travel at a later date, then immediately states that he is sure he will not do that. This narrator seems to be rather dithering. The entire poem must happen in an internal monologue, for the narrator uses the last stanza to decide that he will tell others he chose the path based on its merits. He knows there was no reason to choose one road over the other. He knows that he did not stand there for so long weighing the options and come to a conclusion based on justified ideas. The narrator would like to make himself sound wise and content in his past decisions.

            Whether all of these details were completely intentional or the result of meanings and feelings coming together to naturally form a consistent pattern, the result is the same. Every line evokes both beautiful imagery and subtle tones. These images and tones evoke feelings of uncertainty and doubt. When read with consideration and attention to detail the meaning is made clear and cannot be mistaken. If read through speedily with no mind paid to the second and third stanza, the meaning is completely obscured. When read in this way, the reader only sees what the narrator would like them to see. He made a choice, they both seemed nice at the time, but he chose a less known way and he has had a better life because of it. In reality, he made a decision after thinking about it for a while and coming to a conclusion based on the imaginary advantages of one of the options. He later realized that his choice was no better than the alternative and became lost in wondering if perhaps he was wrong in his decision. Whatever the case, he at least wants others to think he made a sophisticated selection. If this poem is meant to send one message to its readers it can safely be assumed that it is one of being content in your decisions. What happened has happened and you cannot change that. There is no point in dithering and wondering if you made good decisions in the past. Those decisions have already been made.