The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the tother, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy ans wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

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.

I really like this poem because I like the way Frost uses the roads to represent decision making. He uses something seemingly not important, which road to take, to represent something that can be very complex. When making decisions, people sometimes wish that they could have it both ways. However, that is rarely possible. In this poem, the speaker explains how they made the unpopular decision. The unpopular decision is usually the harder one to make and I like how speaker says that this decision made an impact on his life.

*Caesura: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, " (18-19). There is a distinct pause between I and I.

*Enjamblement: "Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back," (14-15). This sentence is separated by a line break and each line cannot stand by itself.

*Metaphor: Frost uses the idea of a traveler choosing between two roads to represent everyday people making decisions that have an important impact on their life.