
Robert Frost
Do not follow where the path may lead... Go instead where there is no 
path and leave a trail. -Robert Frost
Everyone is a traveler, choosing the roads to follow on the map 
of their continuous journey, life. There is never a straight path that 
leaves one with but a sole direction in which to head. Regardless of 
the original message that Robert Frost had intended to convey, his 
poem, The Road Not Taken, has left its readers with many different 
interpretations. It is one's past, present and the attitude with which 
he looks upon his future that determines the shade of the light that 
he will see the poem in. In any case however, this poem clearly 
demonstrates Frost's belief that it is the road that one chooses that 
makes him the man who he is.
And sorry I could not travel both... It is always difficult to 
make a decision because it is impossible not to wonder about the
opportunity cost, what will be missed out on. There is a strong sense 
of regret before the choice is even made and it lies in the knowledge 
that in one lifetime, it is impossible to travel down every path. In 
an attempt to make a decision, the traveler looks down one as far as 
I could. The road that will be chosen leads to the unknown, as does 
any choice in life. As much he may strain his eyes to see as far the 
road stretches, eventually it surpasses his vision and he can never 
see where it is going to lead. It is the way that he chooses here that 
sets him off on his journey and decides where he is going.
Then took the other, just as fair, and having perhaps the better 
claim. What made it have the better claim is that it was grassy
and wanted wear. It was something that was obviously not for everyone 
because it seemed that the majority of people took the other path 
therefore he calls it the road less travelled by. The fact that the 
traveler took this path over the more popular, secure one indicates 
the type of personality he has, one that does not want to necessarily 
follow the crowd but do more of what has never been done, what is new 
and different.
And both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden 
black. The leaves had covered the ground and since the time they had 
fallen no one had yet to pass by on this road. Perhaps Frost does this 
because each time a person comes to the point where they have to make 
a choice, it is new to them, somewhere they have never been and they 
tend to feel as though no one else had ever been there either. I kept 
the first for another day! The desire to travel down both paths is 
expressed and is not unusual, but knowing how way leads on to way, 
the speaker of this poem realizes that the decision is not just a 
temporary one and he doubted if I should ever come back. This is his 
common sense speaking and acknowledging that what he chooses now will 
affect every other choice he makes afterward. Once you have performed 
an act or spoken a word that crystalizes who you are, there is no 
turning back, it cannot be undone.
Once again at the end of the poem the regret hangs over the 
traveler like a heavy cloud about to burst. He realizes that at the
end of his life, somewhere ages and ages hence, he will have regrets 
about having never gone back and traveling down the roads he did not 
take. Yet he remains proud of his decision and he recognizes that it 
was this path that he chose that made him turn out the way and he did 
and live his life the way in which he lived. I took the road less 
trvaeled by and that had made all the difference. To this man, what 
was most important, what really made the difference, is that he did 
what he wanted, even if it meant taking the road less traveled. If he 
hadn't, he wouldn't be the same man he is now.
There are many equally valid meanings to this poem and Robert 
Frost may have intended this. He may have been trying to achieve a 
universal understanding. In other words, there is no judgement, no 
specificity, no moral. There is simply a narrator who makes a decision 
in his life that had changed the direction of his life from what it 
may ahve otherwise been. It allows all readers from all different 
experiences to relate to the poem. 
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Words: 789
