The Road Not Taken

In “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost utilizes paths and forks in the wood as classic metaphors to symbolize the lifeline, with twists and decisions. This image doesn’t require imagination but is simple, accurate, and resonant for the readers. However, some people may misunderstand the last stanza and think that the persona has taken the road less traveled by and becomes different or better than others. This is not true. The fact is that “Neither of the roads is less traveled by,” because in the second stanza the persona says, “the passing there / Had worn them really about the same.”

It is an archetypal dilemma, for which we can not really tell the right path we truly need or want, and nor can we anticipate accurately the consequences. Therefore, that’s why the title is named “The Road Not Taken,” instead of “The Road Less Traveled,” because the persona has anticipated his future remorse. He knows that his future self will betray the present moment of decision-making, which seems inevitable to him because when he make the choice by his free will, the fate is destined and there’s no way to reverse it but repent it.

In addition, the persona sighs not so much for the wrong decision but for the moment of decision-making because it is the turning point that pave the way of his passing life. In my point of view, there is no clear distinction between right and wrong paths because the other path we have never traveled is always unknown to us. Therefore, remorse for the road not taken and boast of the present road less traveled by is only a means of regaining energy for keeping on living in the present life.

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