The Road Not Taken

I suppose people's constant referencing of Frost's "The Road Not Taken" has made analyzing it something of a cliche. Well, I'm proudly diving in anyway because I have a different take on the poem.

Take a look at the last few lines: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--/ I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference." Now most people would probably say that the speaker revels in the idea that he decided to break from the usual mold of society and dare to go where no one had gone before...except the people who traveled that road before him. In any event, from that perspective, I can see the benefit as it inspires us to forge into unfamiliar territory and experience life (ironic being that I'm looking a poem everyone else always does).

My take, however, could arguably be that less beaten path does not turn out the way the speaker wants it to. The first line of the last stanza, "I shall be telling this with a sigh," has an ambiguity about it which could indicate a sign of regret. When we look at the concept of the fork in the road and apply it figuratively to life, we have one of two possibilities: 1) People follow the crowd most of the time and we should try to see outside the box, or 2) the second road is less traveled by because taking that road will result in a psychotic break or violent death (like a road that leads to piranha-infested waters, say. It is entirely possible that our narrator had taken the path to a proverbial piranha cluster and now regrets it in ways only poetry can express.

On a more serious note though, the fact that Frost titled the poem "The Road Not Taken" stands out. Why not call it "The Road Taken?" Granted, we do not know how much time has passed from when the speaker chose the road to when he expresses this poetic sentiment. Even so, the speaker still thinks about that other road. One could see it as every person's desire to take a path and life then backtrack when it does not turn out the way he or she would like. The speaker may indeed have a good life, but still wonders if he could have done better had he taken the road more traveled by. For better or worse, he will never know, and neither will we. The ambiguity of the poem makes all the difference to us.

Shifting gears a bit, "The Road Not Taken" fits quite nicely into the Modernist perspective particularly because it involves a speaker who reaches beyond the "well-traveled roads" of yesterday to find new meaning in life. The speaker choosing the road less traveled by demonstrates a desire to break free from the faltering grip of society. It has made all the difference as the speaker has embraced existentialism therefore taking his fate into his own hands to see what will happen. While we never learn exactly how he feels about his choice, we know for certain that he made the choice himself.


P.S. Movie reference for the week: The Butterfly Effect (even though the concept comes from Bradbury, the whole idea of different paths fits nicely with this poem).