The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

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;         5   Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,         10   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.         15   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 thought of this poem today as pondered the experience of this huge move from Idaho to Florida.  Oh, how Mr. Frost speaks my heart! "Sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler," indeed, looking down a path to its bent, making the choice of where to travel without a clear knowledge of what will be around the bend.  

I've always thought this poem was about how choosing an unpopular or disregarded path is of greater worth than traveling one well-worn.   Today, though, I wonder if maybe those paths are supposed to be representative of him alone.  About how sometimes we have a choice to step into the unknown. I find it interesting that at the end of the poem he is forecasting about how this choice will make a monumental difference in his life and how he will feel about it far in the future.  

Thank you, Mr. Frost, for your beautiful words.  Thank you, friends, for your beautiful lives.  It is only because of the beautiful, wild wonder of new, rare opportunities that I can bear to leave this place and you.