Frost said his poem "The Road Not Taken" was tricky-very tricky. Three things make his poem tricky-the time frame, and the words "sigh" and "difference."
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” has been one of the most analyzed, quoted, anthologized poems in American poetry. A wide-spread interpretation claims that the speaker in the poem is promoting individualism and non-conformity.
A Tricky Poem
Frost claims that he wrote this poem about his friend Edward Thomas, with whom he had walked many times in the woods near London. Frost has said that while walking they would come to different paths and after choosing one, Thomas would always fret wondering what they might have missed by not taking the other path.
About the poem, Frost asserted, "You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem - very tricky." And he is, of course, correct. The poem has been and continues to be used as an inspirational poem, one that to the undiscerning eye seems to be encouraging self-reliance, not following where others have led.
But a close reading of the poem proves otherwise. It does not moralize about choice, it simply says that choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived it.
First Stanza – Describes Situation
The poem consists of four stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker describes his position. He has been out walking the woods and comes to two roads, and he stands looking as far down each one as he can see. He would like to try out both, but doubts he could to that, so therefore he continues to look down the roads for a long time trying to make his decision about which road to take.
Second Stanza – Decides to Take Less-Traveled Road
He had looked down the first one “to where it bent in the undergrowth,” and in the second stanza, he reports that he decided to take the other path, because it seemed to have less traffic than the first. But then he goes on to say that they actually were very similarly worn. The second one that he took seems less traveled, but as he thinks about it, he realizes that they were “really about the same.” Not exactly that same but only “about the same.”
Third Stanza – Continue Description of Roads
The third stanza continues with the cogitation about the possible differences between the two roads. He had noticed that the leaves were both fresh fallen on them both and had not been walked on, but then again claims that maybe he would come back and also walk the first one sometime, but he doubted he would be able to, because in life one thing leads to another and time is short.
Fourth Stanza – Two Tricky Words
The fourth stanza holds the key to the trickiness of the poem:
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Those who interpret this poem as suggesting non-conformity take the word “difference” to be a positive difference. But there is nothing in the poem that suggests that this difference signals a positive outcome. The speaker could not offer such information, because he has not lived the “difference” yet.
The other word that leads non-discerning readers astray is the word “sigh.” By taking “difference” to mean a positive difference, they think that the sigh is one of nostalgic relief; however, a sigh can also mean regret. There is the “oh, dear” kind of sigh, but also the “what a relief” kind of sigh. Which one is it? We do not know. If it is the relief sigh, then the difference means the speaker is glad he took the road he did; if it is the regret sigh, then the difference would not be good, and the speaker would be sighing in regret. But the plain fact is we do not know what that sigh is. Again, the speaker of the poem does not even know the nature of that sigh, because that sigh and his evaluation of the difference his choice will make are still in the future. It is a truism that any choice we make is going to make “all the difference” in how our future turns out.
Careful Readers Won’t Be Tricked
So Frost was absolutely correct; his poem is tricky—very tricky. But only if we are not careful readers. If we read into poems claims that are not there. And in this poem, it is important to be careful with the time frame. When the speaker says he will be reporting sometime in the future how his road choice turned out, we have to realize that we cannot assign meaning to “sigh” and “difference,” because the speaker himself cannot know how his choice will affect his future, until after he has lived it.
The copyright of the article Robert Frost's Tricky Poem in American Poetry is owned by Linda Sue Grimes. Permission to republish Robert Frost's Tricky Poem in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Interpretations need not be same for everyone, there need not be a logical
reason for what the poet meant. Its rather what we percieve that makes a
poem a poem and there can be hundereds of interpretations and every one may
be right ;)
Apr 30, 2008 2:30 PM
Guest
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i have to do this for my english class and i was so confused untill i came
across this website!
May 1, 2008 9:27 AM
Guest
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Interpretation should never be stated as fact. Especially in instances
where so many different views are possible. Using phrases like
"careful readers won't be tricked" is an attempt giving
credibility to ones own opinion by discounting others.
May 2, 2008 6:04 AM
Guest
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this is a really tricky poem and its one of my favorites
May 3, 2008 9:45 AM
Guest
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I have to do this poem for my comm. arts class and after some very
careful reading I beleive this site will help me greatly.
May 3, 2008 12:53 PM
Guest
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I just went with the blatant, straightforward, and more popular view at
first but this shed a bit more light on it.
May 3, 2008 3:09 PM
Guest
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does ANYONE know where i can find poetry terms for this poem!
May 3, 2008 7:11 PM
Guest
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This is one of my fav poems by THE ONE ONLY ROBERT FROST.this potry
analysiis really help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 4, 2008 8:30 PM
Guest
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I have to analyze this poem for English class, and this site really helped
me!
May 5, 2008 7:42 AM
Guest
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I choose to interpret this poem in my own way and be inspired. Oftentimes
in life, we take the easy way out. But other times, we make more difficult
and less popular decisions. These choices can make all the difference in
our lives about who we are and what type of person we choose to be.
May 7, 2008 11:24 PM
Guest
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Don't forget the tone of the poem! The speaker is traveling in a
"YELLOW" wood. Yellow represents hope, perseverance, happiness,
etc. This high spritied tone is consistent throughout the poem. With that
in mind, it is not wrong for the reader to look at the sigh as a contented
sigh. Although time frame is very important and often overlooked by the
reader, I still think the speaker expects a positive outcome- though he
still does not know what exactly the outcome will entail.
Thank
you for your analysis. I am writing a paper right now for my english 355
class at CSUN and it has been a big help!
May 11, 2008 5:38 PM
Guest
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I love this poem and I use it to teach Literary Analysis in my senior
english classes. I have read many comments and reviews about this poem, and
find it fascinating that many times it is interpreted negatively. I do not
feel it is negative at all. Actually, I teach my students that active
readers bring their past life experiences with them to the text. My
students have an array of interpretations of this poem and I explain that
as long as they can support their interpretation with the text that there
is no right or wrong answer. This is not math; 1+1=2. Literature does not
follow a strict regiment like mathematics! Maybe I am the minority in my
interpretation, but I still see this poem as an inspiration.
May 12, 2008 12:10 AM
Guest
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The existentialist's anxiety arises from the fact that a choice FOR one
road turns out to be a choice AGAINST another road. This is true of all
choices in life, and is not limited to choices between two inanimate
objects. It can also refer to choices between people, jobs, careers etc.,
so the road fork is a metaphor for choices in general. The early
existentialist philosophers tried to forge all choices into dichotomies. In
practice we must often choose between many alternatives. Often the choice
isn't just which of two 'roads' but actually a choice about how to choose.
Now the strange thing about choices is that it is we who make them,
and in that sense no choice can ever be the wrong one. We, in fact, make it
right the moment we choose it, as long as we have the courage to act on our
choice.
May 13, 2008 10:12 AM
Guest
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In my opninion the last stanza can be very tricky, but it is not impossible
to understand. We would have to assume that he is sighing with relief
because of the words he wrote in between the sigh he made and the
difference it made...he says that he took the one less traveled by. For
many people that means that it was a hard journey but a positive one
nonetheless...I conclude that he must have had a sigh of relief.
May 16, 2008 3:00 AM
Guest
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"Had worn them really about the same" You have to remember
that the narrator admits that the roads did as a whole look the same. What I was taught, and what I believe, is that Robert Frost is using the
two roads for the "glamour" effect. The narrator says that he
will be telling the story in years to come that he took the road less
travelled, although the narrator also admits that there was no solid
evidence that the road was indeed less travelled (referring back to the
quote), therefore he is speaking of the human nature to awe people with
their tales of inspiration and "glamour" (to an extent) in their
past. I believe that is why the poem is referred to as a tricky one.
Jun 8, 2008 10:08 AM
Guest
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the thing about this poem is that everyone assumes its terribly profound as
its about one average bloke who chose the harder decision of the two.
However despite what people initially think, we don't know which of the two
are harder, as we don't, and never will know both of the outcomes. If
anyhitng, the "path" that he has chosen is the most travelled by,
as he is travelling it at that moment. And even if he goes back, and takes
the other "path" afterwards, it wouldn't be the same. x
Dec 15, 2008 7:07 PM
Guest
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i am doing a project on this poem and for that i needed to know the meaning
to it and now i do, this site has helped me alot. :)
Dec 19, 2008 11:10 AM
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I've always thought of the sigh as being a, "Well, what's done is
done" kind of sigh. Given that one gets the idea that Frost will never
know what the other trail might have held, it seems that the sigh convays a
sense of wondering as to what the other might have held but with no way of
knowing. The fact the his friend often "fretted" about what the
other trail might have been like leads me even more to believe this.
About "Had worn them really about the same," I wonder if
this has to do with Frost's own life and the changing world around him. His
lifestyle was certainly a road less traveled by the 20th century, but
surely he knew that many had come before him and that for much of the
history of the world, life in the country on a farm was normal. Modern city
life would have been a road less taken. Besides, living on a small farm in
the country, with open space all around, it would have been easy for him to
feel like few others were living as he was. Yet many people had lived like
that before (a majority at one time) and many still do.
Dec 29, 2008 3:05 PM
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I think it's ironic that many are assigned to write about this poem early
in their life. And that's because it's many of the choices made while a
person is still fairly young that changes their life the most. And yet,
many are not prepared to make those choices in a thoughtful and
well-informed way. So regret may occur or just wondering...what
"if" I'd made a different choice? I think I'm old enough to fully
understand the consequences and rewards of those early choices. So the
"sigh"...can be both negative and positive! And even a person
happy with their later lives can wonder...and sigh...what "if"
I'd made a different choice, what "if" I'd taken a different
path. Too late, because it's true, once you've chosen a path, seldom can
you go back to try the other path. After that first path, another fork in
the path, and another choice, and another after that. Life slips by. And
the way back is not usually possible anymore.
Jan 4, 2009 10:39 AM
Guest
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One should be careful with interpretation. There are many poems that allow
the reader to make his or her own interpretation of it, but not all poems
allow this freedom. Interpretations can be wrong when the author is
clearly making a definitive point and the reader chooses to ignore that
point either willfully or through sloppy reading. The narrator in
"The Road Not Taken" is clearly indecisive and the two roads are
clearly similar - the narrator says this many times. The only way of
interpreting the poem to be about individualism and inspiration is if the
reader completely ignores every line of the poem except for the last two.
To argue that the topic of the poem is anything the reader wants it to be
is lazy. It's what bad teachers tell students about poetry. It causes
confusion in students and fails to allow students to develop close reading
skills. Frost has a clear message in this poem. One can claim to take
whatever message they want from it but that is stubbornly ignoring the
reality of the poem.
Jan 8, 2009 6:41 AM
Guest
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I agree with the comment in the fifth post below this comment. Also, only
the poet himself will know what the poem truly means. Who knows maybe when
he was writing this work he was swelling with mixed or lingering emotions
(like some writers)that if we only knew maybe all of our analysis are right
and wrong at the same time.
Feb 12, 2009 12:11 PM
Guest
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The narrator knows something about human nature that most of the readers do
not recognize: we all look back on our life and try to justify that we
chose the right path or that our memories are imperfect and we want them to
be more glamorous or perfect. It is no different than when your father
tells you how much "tougher" his high school football team was
compared to yours in the present. Or how a mother might tell a daughter
that she never talked back to a teacher or came to school without her
homework. Those things may be true, but in most cases they are probably
our perceptions of the past, clouded by years and false memories.
The narrator will be telling with a "sigh" "that I-"
and there he pauses before saying that his choice made all of the
difference. Ms. Grimes is correct in asserting that the narrator cannot
know the outcome of the path. However he does realize that he does not
want to say that his choice was a mistake.
Frost knew that
people looked back over their lives and want to say that they took the
right path. But he also knows that few of us want to admit that we took
the wrong one, or at least a path that might have led to a better life.
I believe that Frost was telling us something in this poem. The
New Criticism philosophy of reading poetry tells us to search for what the
poet wants us to know. I do not believe that a poem "can mean
anything you want" or "can be interpreted in many ways"
unless that was the author's explicit desire. There are no hidden meanings
in poems. Why would a great poet want to hide what he is trying to tell
us?
Ms. Grimes, thank you for enlightening so many people with
your insightful explanation of this wonderful poem. I have been teaching
this same explanation for many, many years. You have provided a concise
explanation of a rather complex or "tricky" poem.
Feb 13, 2009 8:14 AM
Guest
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I do think that the peom is very tricky but after checking out this website
i am now able to better undersatnd the peom.
Feb 16, 2009 5:48 PM
Guest
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There is more than one path in life because each path branches off into
another direction. I think the poem is talking about direction and risk
taking. It is talking about the courage to take a chance and step out on a
path because each path is an adventure.
Jun 8, 2009 7:35 AM
Guest
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I was a bit confused with the last two lines of the second stanza
initially.I inferred a meaning of the lines but I was unconvinced of the
credibility of the inference.I just logged on the net and found this
site.It helped authenticate my conjecture and also informed me that Ianm
not the only one having difficulty in grasping the essence of the poem.
Jun 9, 2009 9:55 AM
Guest
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"The speaker could not offer such information, because he
has not lived the “difference” yet."
"...his
evaluation of the difference his choice will make are still in the
future."
I disagree. The speaker has already made an
evaluation: he has determined that his choice "has made
all the difference". As such, he has lived his choice at least long enough to decide this, to decide that it was an important choice. He has lived his choice at least long enough to say that his future self will still acknowlege that it was an important choice.
"...any choice we make is going to make 'all the difference' in how
our future turns out."
I disagree. Most of the
choices we make in life make little difference at all. My choice of
coffee or tea for breakfast this morning pales in comparison with
landmark choices I've made in my life, such as where to go to school,
or what job to take.
Again, clearly the author has been able to
reflect on his choice long enough to realize that it was a life
changer.
Jun 10, 2009 6:27 AM
Guest
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I have to do this poem for class but i read this and i still don't
understand it. Its not that its hard i just don't like poetry so i guess I
will just have to find another website or ask my teacher if i can do
another poem.
Jun 10, 2009 7:00 AM
Guest
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I think your interpretation is wrong, I think he is just narrating a story
that had already happened; then sums everything up, "I shall be
telling this with a sigh," as in he is telling right now, it has made
all the difference. Once upon a time I came upon two roads diverged in a
wood...hitherto, I am telling with a sigh.
Jun 10, 2009 7:18 PM
Guest
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Many times in life we experince events that have the capability of defining
us. What this poem stresses that most events are neither good nor bad. They
are simply events. We can stare back at the event an wonder if things would
have better if we went a different way but ultimatley we will never know.
It is up to make the best of the path we are on. To focus on what could be
next not what it could of been.
Jun 13, 2009 1:11 AM
Guest
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Thank you guys, I've got my english exam next Monday: analyzing the poem:
The Road Not Taken" :)
Jun 15, 2009 3:53 AM
Guest
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I've previously interpreted this beautiful poem as meaning different things
to different readers, but I'm challenged by the comments here to see what
is actually written, and what is actually being said. Time Frame: The speaker has clearly begun his journey ("Then took the
other"), but nowhere does it does it say that he has completed it. In
fact, it is most likely he has not, because he does not know where he will
be when he speaks about it in the future ("SOMEWHERE ages and ages
hence"). "Sigh": Sighs can be sighs of relief, or
sighs of regret. We are not told what kind of sigh the speaker expects to
be "telling us with", he just says that he expects to
"sigh". What is common among sighs, however, is they contain an
element of resignation, of acceptance. There have been some comments
here about the speaker's hesitancy at the end of the poem ("Two roads
diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by"), but
his usage of the double "I" does not necessarily indicate
hesitancy. The only thing we know for sure is that the speaker says the
word twice, he is giving it importance. He also tells us that his
choice of roads will someday have made "all the difference". He
doesn't say whether he expects that difference to be negative or positive,
but he does expect that it will be important,that it will make "ALL
the difference". I believe the poem to be a very straightforward
existential statement. From "The Existential Primer": "Existentialism attempts to describe our desire to make rational
decisions despite existing in an irrational universe.... life might be
without inherent meaning ... the human desires for logic and immortality
are futile. We are forced to define our own meanings, knowing they might be
temporary. In this existence… the Individual Defines Everything."
http://www.tameri.com/csw/exist/index.html Is that not what the
speaker is saying to us? He "looked down one as far as I could"
in an attempt to make a rational choice. He tells us that he will
"sigh", because he accepts that his attempt for rationality if
futile. Most importantly, he knows that the two roads are "about
the same", that, for him, "all the difference" comes from
the road "I took".
Jun 17, 2009 7:04 PM
Guest
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my teacher wants us to emphasize the poet 1st we dont` care about
it... but time went by we are acctually wrong because the poet reveals
the biggest secret...... the most unforgetable moral lesson i`ve ever
heard to.... decide the right decision..... ^^ yahoo:
johnley15@yahoo.com from: PHILIPPINES ^?^
Jun 20, 2009 2:38 AM
Guest
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It is a nice explianation given by whoever and this is the kind of
explianation i was looking for.I needed to do a research kind of
understanding and this has helped me.May i know whoever wrote this?This is
my only request to know.
Jun 20, 2009 3:02 AM
Linda Sue Grimes :
The article, "Robert Frost's Tricky Poem: Analysis of 'The Road Not
Taken'" was written by Linda Sue Grimes.
Jun 20, 2009 5:53 AM
Guest
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Nice poem and way of explaination.
Jun 22, 2009 3:07 PM
Guest
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This is the best analysis of the poem I have read to date. While it is true
that one is entitled to one's own interpretation, it is self-evident that
certain interpretations are more readily allowed by what is actually
written than others, and some not at all. For example, if I were to declare
the poem is about the difficulty of seating a camel in a canoe during the
1936 Olympics then in reality I would have a hard time having my
interpretion taken seriously.
The poem is very carefully
constructed and brings to mind the act of trying to balance something not
given over easily to being balanced. The poem is no so much about making a
decision but about the art of indecision. The poet cannot really reach a
conclusion about what he is actually seeing before him let alone a rational
decision about which route to take. He repeatedly contradicts himself in
his assessment, even after he has apparently made his decision. He deletes
the notion that there is any evidence to suggest he is consciously
travelling on the road less travelled by. Each time he declares the road
he has chosen is 'less travelled' by he countermands it with an 'equally'
or a 'same'. The poem is importantly called The Road NOT taken. He cannot
know that he has actually taken the raod less travelled by because he has
no notion of what lies along that other road. At the end of the poem the
fact that he is actually rehearsing his end-of-the-road speech so far far
ahead of its conclusion suggests guile and artifice - he has no evidence
that all will end well or that at the beginning he even actually
consciously chose 'the road less travelled by' but already he has
determined to render his summary in a heroic light. The 'I will be
telling...' suggest a future-revisionism. A sort of "I did it my
way" which does not reflect the painful prevarication and confusion
the early stanzas ooze. It is the heroic poem of a chiseled chin
silhouetted against a golden sunset but an average joe bumbling through
lifes decision determined to paper over his lack of vision with a
traveller's tale, the posturing of luckless vagabond!
Jun 27, 2009 1:37 AM
Guest
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i read this poem in my poetry book it clearly shows the mystry of life
