The Road Not Taken

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"The Road Not Taken" is a poem by Robert Frost, published in 1916 in the collection Mountain Interval. It is the first poem in the volume and is printed in italics. The title is often mistakenly given as "The Road Less Traveled", from the penultimate line: "I took the one less traveled by".

"The Road Not Taken" is a narrative poem consisting of four stanzas of iambic tetrameter and is one of Frost's most popular works.

Ive read this poem when I was in elementary and again in second year high school as part of our English subject. I even used this as my teaching demo the first time I applied as a professor. It was a very simple poem talking about making decisions in life. How one decides and how one reacts at the end.

My road not taken? Not to marry young. I had friends eloping and having babies right after college. I even had college classmates who are single moms. I didn't marry young not because lack of boyfriend, but of choice. My fiance left me for another girl because I won't compromise of his offer to marry and live with his family. I have this image in my mind that having a family should be starting on your own. Not adopting a whole family. That one shouldn't marry at all if one is not financially stable to nurture children. Now, all of my friends kids are in grade school and one going to high school. Until now I can't fathom their guts and courage to stand up for love and against their parents wishes. Am I envious? Not really. I was not forced to marry anyone just because of pregnancy. This is what I want. Freedom. To taste life. To experience all it has to offer.  Now, I'm ready to settle down. I have taken my road. Its time to diverge to someone else's.

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 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,

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.