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Poem: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

What is the poem about? This poem is about a man who comes to a fork in the road while walking through the forest. The two roads seem pretty equal, but one seems to be slightly less worn. He tells himself that he will come back and take the other road in the future, but he knows deep down that this decision will probably be permanent. The poem ends by the narrator saying that he will look back on this decision later in life and realize that taking the “road less traveled by… has made all the difference.”

Reflection Prompt: Please, discuss one theme that you recognize in this poem and support your claim with evidence from the text.

‘Choice’ is a major theme in The Road Not Taken. The poem focuses all of its attention on a single, ordinary decision – the kind of choice we make hundreds of times a day. Reading the poem though, I get the feeling this choice about which road to take represents more than just a path in the forest. It seems to represent all the decisions we make and the importance of the ACT of choosing in itself.

I see two major ways to interpret what this poem says about choice. On the one hand, we can focus on the final lines of the poem: “Two roads diverged in a wood and I,/ I took the one less traveled by/ And that has made all the difference.” In this case, Frost seems to be saying that in life we should choose to try things that haven’t been done before and do things our own way. On the other hand, if we focus on the earlier part of the poem in which the traveler describes the two roads as “really about the same,” we might argue that Frost is really saying that it’s not so much WHICH path you choose in life that matters, but rather that you consider your options, make a decision, and stick with it. I think the second way of thinking about choice in the poem makes the most sense because the title of the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” draws the readers attention not to the “road less traveled” but instead to the choice the traveler DOESN’T make, suggesting that both choices are of equal importance.