1. “The Road Not Taken”
By: Robert Frost

2. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler,

3. long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

4. Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

5. 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.

6. Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

7. I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:

8. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

9. Theme/Lesson
The poem revolves around the metaphor comparing the decisions we make on the journey of life to a fork in the road. Just as we must decide which road to take when traveling in order to arrive at a location, we must make decisions in life that will greatly impact our destination. The speaker is a “traveler” on the road of life who wishes that he could go both directions and avoid making a decision.

10. Cont’d
But, at the end of the poem, as an adult – the speaker recognizes that the choice he made – the path he chose – has made all the difference in his life.
The message is that life is full of choices. We cannot know what lies in our future, but we must trust our instincts when we make those choices and hope all turns out well.