The Road Not Taken

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.

-Robert Frost

Questions

Please discuss and answer the following questions:

1) What is the decision that the speaker makes? How does he make the decision?

2) Are the two roads very different?

3) What is the extended metaphor of the poem? What is this poem really about (aside from choosing path in the forest)?

4) What do the two roads symbolize (i.e. What does it mean to walk on the road less traveled? and What does it mean to walk on the road more traveled?)

5) Why has taking the road “less traveled by” made all the difference?

6) Why do you think the poem is titled, “The Road Not Taken”?