The Road Not Taken / Robert Frost

Explore 'The Road Not Taken' by Robert Frost. Get a summary and analysis of this classic poem about life choices.

Complete this Summary and analysisof the poem. Use the word bank. This poemis based on an image of paths in a wood and the basic metaphoris one in which the choices in life are comparedto two nearly identical roads in a forest, along one of which the speaker has to go. The wood is full of undergrowthand the two roads forking in it are similar but one is grassierthan the other, indicating that fewer people have trodden on it. The wood symbolizes life and the undergrowth stands for the unknown in life, the unexpected,the things that one can’t prepare for or predict.The roads symbolizechoices in life. One road is the path that more people take, the more conservative,conformist path that has fewer risks because it is better known. The second path is the lesser known and lesser traveled along. There is more adventure in this choice; life is less predictablealong this path. The speaker chose the lesser known path that fewer people had gone along. He thought that it looked more interesting because it was “grassy”, that is, it had not been troddenupon and used by people, which meant it would be more of a challengeand adventure.The speaker kept the other optionopen in his mind to choose at another time, but in his heart, he knew that one event leads on to another and one becomes more and more involvedin the life one has chosen. Therefore, once one has made a serious choice, it is not likely that one could ever come back and make the other choice instead ofor even in addition to the first.The speaker has doubtsabout his original decision because he says : “ I shall be telling this with a sigh”.Sigh- an expression of regret, or relief.According to the speaker, the difference the path has made to his life is negative or positive - he and we have no way of knowing.This is a poem about the consequences of making a decision, looking back on lost possibilities.The speaker reflects on a major decision and choice that was made in the past and why he made that particular choice. Instead of talking about what he has gained and achieved,he thinks about how life could have been differenthad he chosen the other path. This is not a poem in which he thinks back on all the things that he did in his life but the opposite –he is thinking about what he didn’t do. That is why it is called “ The Road Not Taken”