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