The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken” Final Stanza In Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken he is attempting to relay the sense of direction we all use in making decisions. Frost arranged each stanza in his poem to rely one thought for each stanza. The main idea of the poem is “one of reflection and imagery as Frost looks back on his life” (1) The Road Not Taken is one of the most misunderstood poem’s Frost every wrote in his life. Many people believe they understand the poem after its first reading and they believe the poem is about a simple choice between two roads. When in fact the poem is complex and needs further readings to fully understand the content. The final line in the poem is often a symbol of America’s individual spirit of adventure and one many people relate to. In the middle of the poem Frost admits to himself that both paths may be equally worn and leaf covered and only in his future will he be able to call the path he takes as the path less traveled. The “sigh” in the poem is often interpreted as one of regret or one of satisfaction. When asked later in life Frost replied “it was my rather private jet at the expense of those who might think I would yet live to be sorry for the way I had taken in life”. (2) Many experts believe the “sigh” represents regret because the tone of the poem in done in a regretful way and is conveyed in a remorseful tone. The Road Not Taken is often believed to be the regret of one’s decisions in life because of the choices we make. We all have many decisions to make in life and we change our futures by the path we chose. “Everyone has had to make difficult decisions of which the outcome cannot be foreseen”.