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 marked 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.
The poem mainly addresses the indecisivenessof the human being, and particularly the “fear” of the unknown. Most people would take the easy way, simply because it is recognizable, or perhaps because “”everyone else” is taking it. It is inertly human to do what is more “attractive”, hence the paragraph:
“Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear"
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear"
The point of the Poem is to emphasize that often we have many choices in life, some more attractive than others. That we should live with the choices we make, and never regret the things we did do, rather those that we did not.
Often, the significance of things is lost in the choices we make. We need to also stop and appreciate those we do not, in short, appreciating both sides of the Janus coin leads to intensiveness. The “what ifs?” of life. One often evaluates the more attractive choice, however it seems that in this situation, one ponders, and lastly, can get lost in the evaluation. Making a choice, is just as important as making a “right or wrong” decision. It is MAKING a decision that takes precedence in this stanza.
The author, inculcates throughout the poem, that coming to a fork in the woods, and seeing the worn path, meaning the one most take, leaving a predominant trail, makes it hard to choose which way to go. Again, it seems that this is a metaphor for making choices in life, and evaluating the “attractiveness” of the paths we are presented. However, he uses “yellow” early on in the poem, a color which is usually referred to in reference to cowardess. Is it that people are often afraid to face these choices, or is it that the author is undecided due to fear of the unknown, and therefore paralyzed and pondering? It seems that in the end, he chooses that road less traveled as a sort of challenge, and yet in the last paragraph states, “I shall be telling with a sigh; Somewhere ages and ages hence”; Meaning perhaps that there will always be regrets about the road not taken.
"They who know virtue, are few" , says Confucius, vs. Robert Frost’s “"Yet knowing how way leads onto way; I doubted if I should ever come back”, both very similar in demeanor, yet somehow almost opposite.
Confucius states also that “What a Superior Man seeks is in himself; What the ordinary man seeks is in others. This relates through the obligation of making unique or perhaps, what is the perception, of “mainstream” ideals or choices in daily life. Once is faced with a multitude of multifaceted options and in accord, we often, almost robotically, make the same or “safe choices. However life, is about exploration. It is for the taking. Success comes from the “risk” involved and gambled among those who will.
The “Superior Man” (or woman for that matter), is the one who dabbles, or jumps in with two feet into the “unknown”. The pure sense of exploration is not only an inherited trait, but also one acquired. The burden of conformity argues against the explication of the daily matutine reality. Inference into this is apparent in both arguments.