The poem “The Road Not Taken” talks about how the speaker comes across a fork in a “yellow wood” and is battling over which path to take. When first reading the poem (having read this a few times before), I thought that Robert Frost was trying to tell us that he’s trying to go against the crowd, “I took the one less traveled by” but he seems to contradict himself by saying, “Though as for that the passing there, had worn them really about the same…” Therefore, I think the poem is really talking about how he wishes he can take both paths, seeing where it would take him, but of course, it’s not plausible. He finally decides on a path, and comes back thinking “What if?” He says that one day he’s going to come back and try the other path, but as he makes his decision he realizes that it’s not likely that he’s going to have another chance again. I think the poem is saying that the paths are almost equal, if not equal, but I believe exaggeration is coming into play here about the real differences (very aware that a popular interpretation of the poem is him not taking the easy way, or the way preferred by “travelers”). I think this poem is just a really extended metaphor. It’s obvious that Frost isn’t really telling us about a walk in the park. The road is a metaphor for how life moves on. The fork in the road symbolizes the choices we make in life, about how life is not just a simple straight road. The speaker taking both paths into consideration symbolizes how we have to think before we act. He doesn’t really regret his decision of the path but he does want to see what’s in place for him in the other one. It does, however, symbolize how every decision we make, no matter how little, have consequences, good or bad, and you can’t do anything about it. The poem has four quintains, each following an ABAAB rhyme scheme. The rhythm is pretty strict throughout, maybe except for the last line, “And that has made all the difference”. The overall mood of this poem is
