yellow. This is autumn, a time of change—and also the beginnings of death in nature. The speaker is facing a season of change. The imagery at the end of this stanza sets up the choice he makes:

And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

The initial path he examines has an uncertain path. Covered by "undergrowth," the road turns and he can't tell where that destination will end.

So he takes the other road, which doesn't exactly support the more difficult choice. Check out the imagery when the speaker initially makes the choice regarding which path he will take:

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,

The path he chooses is "fair," covered in grass (not rocks and boulders) and is inviting. Also important is that the two paths are worn equally. This is not the less traveled road. It is as equally traveled as the road he doesn't choose.

The speaker reinforces this idea with the imagery at the beginning of the third stanza:

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

Neither road shows the clearly less-traveled path. Both are covered in leaves which have not been disturbed.

Also notice how the language shifts to reflect an almost archaic and fanciful tone at the beginning of the final stanza:

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

"Shall," "hence," and "ages and ages" has the same feel as "Once upon a time." The speaker slips into this almost fanciful language to remind the readers of the fantasy he has created about the "difficulty" of the path he has chosen.

The imagery and language Frost uses conveys a message that people often want to retell the glories of their most difficult choices and paths, but they fail (intentionally or unintentionally) the recall the accuracy in details of those choices. Also important is the fact that the title is "The Road Not Taken," not "The Hard Road I Took." The speaker tells "with a sigh" of his "road less traveled by," but all the while he is actually remembering "The Road Not Taken."

The previous educators have thoroughly outlined most of the poetic devices in the poem, but none have yet written about Frost's choice of meter.

Frost employs an "abaab" rhyme scheme. This is a cinquain, or a poem or stanza composed of five lines. Cinquains are seen in limericks, for example, though those poems employ a different rhyme scheme.

As one previous educator mentioned, the road is a metaphor for the different "paths" one may take in life. Both were "worn," meaning that many others had taken the same path, or made a similar choice in life. 

Frost's choice of "morning" and autumn are also metaphoric. One's autumn years indicate late adulthood. "Morning" indicates a new beginning. Even late in life, we get chances or opportunities to make life-changing choices. 

Sound devices are techniques which lend a sense of rhythm to a poem. They include end rhymes, internal rhymes, meter, alliteration, assonance, and consonance, all of which cause emphasis to fall on certain words, syllables, or sounds in a poems.

"The Road Not Taken" seems perfectly simple and almost like casually spoken speech, but it is carefully structured. For example, it follows an ABAAB pattern of end rhymes. In the first stanza, for example, "wood," "stood," and "could" are the "A" rhymes, while "both" and "growth" are the "B" rhymes.

Second, the stress falls on the second syllable in each foot or pair of beats, but since each line has only nine syllables, the stress ends up falling on the rhyme at the end of the line, adding even more emphasis to it.

The poem also uses alliteration, or putting words beginning with the same consonant in close proximity, for example, in "wanted wear," and "lay/In leaves."

Figurative language is when words are used to convey an idea beyond their literal meaning, usually by way of comparison. Figurative language is fundamentally metaphorical, allowing us to understand one thing in terms of another kind of thing. In "The Road Not Taken," Frost uses an extended metaphor in which a fork in the road represents the decisions one makes on the path of life.

Indeed, the fork in the road is the poem's central metaphor. Just as a traveler walking in the woods must choose which paths to take, people must make choices in life, and these choices continually lead to further choices.

The poem further develops this metaphor by stressing that once a path is followed, it is impossible to go back to the original path. Having made up his mind to take the second road, the speaker says,

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

That is, the speaker will have taken so many different routes that he cannot return to the original fork in the road. This aspect of the metaphor suggests the linearity of life. Just as a traveler will tend to continue onward in their journey, people cannot repeat the past or go back and change the decisions they have made in their lives.

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is divided into four five-line stanzas, with the breaks between stanzas indicated by blank lines. The rhymes in the poem form a regular pattern, with each stanza having an identical rhyme scheme. The rhyme words occur at the ends of the lines, and are mostly regular in that they repeat both a vowel and a consonant sound. 

Literary critics usually describe rhymes by indicating the rhyme sounds with capital letters, with the first rhyme sound of a stanza assigned an "A", the second a "B", the third a "C", etc. When the same sound recurs, critics repeat the letter. Thus in the first stanza, one would label the rhyme scheme as follows (rhyme words italicized and labels bolded):

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

Thus the rhyme scheme of the stanza is described as "ABAAB". 

All four stanzas of the poem use the same rhyme scheme, albeit with different rhyme words. The rhyme words are all the final words of the lines, and are thus known as "end rhymes". 

Robert Frost uses "the road" as a metaphor for a course not taken in life. In the first line, the narrator recalls his fateful choice: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood." "Two roads" are a metaphor for two options. The "yellow wood" signifies an autumn light. Frost's decision to set the moment in the Fall could be a metaphor for a narrator that is in his or her "autumn years."

Like many of those faced with two good options but forced to choose one, the narrator expresses sorrow that he could not choose both—we can only walk down one path. 

In the second stanza, he muses that he initially believed that his choice was the better of the two but later thought differently:

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...

The option we choose is always less appealing after it is chosen, for we wonder about the choice that we did not make. Thus, in the end, the narrator realizes that both choices were about equally good.

In the third stanza, the narrator mentions time of day: it is "morning." Morning could signify a new beginning. When we are presented with a new choice, or opportunity, this offers us a chance to do something new—even to start again. It is here, too, that the narrator recognizes the finality of his or her choice:

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

The speaker knows that once a choice is made, it cannot be undone. One must continue on the "path" that was chosen.

The final stanza reveals a kind of wistfulness for choices not made:

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.

The "difference" is not an ode to non-conformity, as so many have thought but instead an acceptance that choices determine the outcome of one's life. The path the speaker chose is "the one less traveled by," not because it was less ordinary, but only because it looked more appealing at first. Yet, both options, or paths, were "really about the same."

The road in Frost's "The Road Not Taken" symbolizes the path of life. At so many different points in our lives, we must make choices. The choices may seem to be small ones, to go down one street as opposed to another or to wear a yellow shirt as opposed to a blue one. But the choices can be large ones, which are more the kinds the poem is intended to make us contemplate. We decide to live in one city or another, we decide to marry one person or another, or we decide to become architects or poets.

All of us would like to perhaps sample these different paths in life, but until we have figured out a way to live alternative lives in alternative universes, we understand that making one choice precludes another nearly all of the time. The narrator says,

Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back (lines 13-15).

The irony in “The Road Not Taken” is that the speaker admits that he plans to misrepresent his choice between the two roads when he tells the story in the future. Throughout the poem, the speaker provides several clues that although the decision between the two roads feels significant, the roads are similar and have been traveled about the same number of times. Although the roads initially seem different, the speaker acknowledges that

the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

In other words, about the same number of people have passed down each road, wearing the paths the same amount. Further, the two paths

equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

No one has walked down either road this particular morning, as the leaves atop the roads are freshly fallen and untrodden by others’ footsteps.

However, the speaker says that when he tells the story of his choice “ages and ages hence”—a long time in the future—he is going to say that he

took the [road] less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

He plans to say that one of the roads truly had been less traveled than the other and that he chose that road, but he has already made it clear that there is no road "less traveled by."

There is great irony in this disjunction. At some level, the speaker knows that it is human nature to ascribe great importance to one's life choices, and he thinks he is bound to misrepresent his experience for this reason.

Diction is the style of speaking or writing and the choice of words used. Diction can refer to whether a poem is formal, informal, colloquial, or uses slang. Formal diction tends to be deemed more serious, but the Romantic poets tried to use more informal diction to make serious statements about poetry and life. The diction (style) of a poet might also have to do with his/her era or his/her particular subject matter and tone. 

The tone and the poetic quality of this poem are very serious. But Frost does use simple or informal vocabulary to illustrate the simplicity of the theme: making difficult choices. He uses a formal style but with an informal landscape of the woods from which to derive the metaphor. 

Stylistically and poetically, the poem is formal. This poem was written in 1916 when other poets were abandoning classic poetic words like "hence" and avoiding classic techniques like subject/verb inversion: "long I stood." Frost uses a balance of a classic-sounding style with simplistic and informal word choices. So, it is serious but accessible. 

Some poets use "natural diction" which comes closer to natural speech. Here, Frost uses "poetic diction," that which more traditionally resembles poetic speech. Although the poem is about a natural and common event in life, Frost uses poetic speech to underscore the drama of his choice. For example, if he had opted for more natural diction in the last two lines, he might have said, "I will be saying this with a sigh / Sometime in the future." 

Word choices are informal but descriptive. The style is formal and serious. Frost really stresses the seriousness in the final lines when he repeats the pronoun "I": 

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

He repeats the "I" to illustrate his hesitation and uncertainty, even in old age, that he will always be unsure if he had taken the road less traveled. 

The poem is one extended metaphor (which shows Frost's poetic gift). It is obviously autobiographical--and Frost acknowledged that it was autobiographical. The poet is remembering how he had to make a choice of careers and life styles, which he compares metaphorically with coming to two diverging roads in the woods. He chose the one which was obviously less traveled by, judging from the fact that it was overgrown with grass and the fallen leaves had not been trodden down and blackened by many passing feet. From our knowledge of Frost's life and from his rustic poetry, we can assume that he chose a simple life that would enable him to devote his thoughts and his time to communing with nature and to creative writing, although he would have to give up the luxuries and excitement and financial rewards he might have had if he had taken the other road. He cannot help wondering what his life might have been like if he had chosen the other road at that crucial juncture in his life's journey. It is significant that even in his extended metaphor representing his life, Frost uses imagery drawn from nature. He greatly resembles the English poet William Wordsworth in getting his inspiration from nature. He also shows a strong spiritual kinship with Henry David Thoreau, the New England naturalist, poet, and philosopher.

I'd simply like to remind you that while most people will dwell on the road he took, the title of the poem is about the path he did not take. While he may have been content with the road he chose (as we eventually all must learn to be), he looks wistfully back at the choice he made and the opportunities he necessarily lost.

While you probably now have enough for a great paper, perhaps you may consider analyzing Frost's poem as a light satire on indecisiveness.  As post #3's reference notes, Frost wrote this poem about his fellow poet and friend Edward Thomas who waivered upon the choice of path for them to stroll upon as one might have had more flora than the other. 

Choosing the lighthearted satire as a focus will probably be "the road not taken" by the majority of the other students in your class.  How's this for a title for your analysis: A Road Infrequently Taken about Frost's "A Road not Taken"?

It’s telling us is to live with the choices we make in our life. If you look at the words of the poem, "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," both roads are similar. It’s not a hard choice because one offers more challenge (less traveled). The challenge is making the choice, following through, and dealing with whatever that choice brings.

This should not be a difficult essay to write if you approach it from the perspective that the two roads in the poem are metaphors for the choices we face in life, choices that might be as simple as what movie to see, to the more complex decisions one faces moving into adulthood, such as choices regarding education, careers, marriage, etc.  The difficult part about choices is the knowledge that you're passing up something that might prove to be the better choice--but of course, you'll probably never know for sure--this is what Frost refers to as "the road not taken."  It's hard not to second guess oneself, particularly if the choices we make don't turn out the way we had hoped. 

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost stands as a masterpiece illustrating both the literal and figurative meaning of a poem. The narrator of the poem faces a decision that on the surface seems not so difficult. It is the underlying significance that brings the real meaning of the poem to life.

Literal meaning

The narrator in the poem is walking in the woods on an early autumn morning.  He comes to a fork in the road and has to decide which way to go.  He wishes that he could travel on both roads. When looks down one of the paths, he realizes that he can only see so far before the thick underbrush impedes his view.

In the second stanza, the poet does a cursory look at the roads and quickly chooses one that he first thinks has had less travel than the other one.  After looking at the roads a little more, he sees that there really is not much difference in them because both have been traveled on but not recently.

The third stanza explains that the poet regrets that he cannot go down both roads.  He first states that he will come back another day and go down the other one; however, in reality, it is doubtful that this will happen.

The fourth stanza speaks of the future.  Sometime in the future, the narrator will be telling this story about the fork in the road with a  quiet lament.   The narrator came to a split in the road. He took what he thought was the better road, and this made a big difference in his life.

Figurative meaning

The poet has to make a decision in his life.  The woods are symbolic of the man’s life.  Here the man stands having to decide which path to take in his life.  The reader does not know what the decision concerns: marriage, career, education, or whatever he faces in his life.

The speaker hope that he has made the right selection. It bothers him that he does not know the outcome of his resolution; however, maybe he can try the other choice in the future.

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

 The poet realizes that this is not possible.  Later in his life, he will explain how he made this important decision with a touch of melancholy.  Yet, his decision rendered him able to live his life and that made an enormous distinction. Unfortunately, the reader does not know if this has been a good or bad decision.  All that is known is that it made a difference.

The entire poem is an extended metaphor for life and its choices.  The road represents both the road that a person walks on and the path that a person takes in life. The repetitions of the first line of the poem in the last stanza is an anaphora used to emphasize the point of the poem. 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I---

Thematically, this brings the poem full circle with the idea that the judgment that was made changed his life forever. Wrong turn or not, the roads that are  taken  can end up making significant changes in our lives. And the scary part is that the person will always wonder “What if….”

The last important aspect of the poem to examine is the title. This gives the true feelings of the poet.  It is not titled --the road less traveled or the road I choose.  It is "The Road Not Taken." This highlights that "sigh" that the speaker expresses in the last stanza.  This poem portrays a choice that speaks more of regret than optimism.  Possibly, that difference in the narrator's life was not as good as the reader originally thought.

"The Road Not Taken" is one of the most recognized poems in American Literature written by a literary giant, Robert Frost.  Frost employs a metaphor based on the two roads.   These roads represent the choices man has to make that determine the outcome of his life. Career, marriage, education--all are selections that one makes as he goes through life.

The first person point of view enables the narrator to speak directly to the reader about the alternatives that he has before him.  When the poem begins, it is fall with the leaves turning yellow.  The man comes to a “Y” in the road.  Indecisive about which way to go, the narrator establishes that he would like to move down both paths; but that is an impossibility. He stands and contemplates the options carefully:

A.  One road has a bend which is hard to see. Both have equal wear and apparently have not been disturbed since the leaves had fallen. He decides that if he comes back to this spot again [which he doubts], that it will be the path he follows.

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth

B. The other road he thinks has more grass and less wear, but then decides the roads are about the same. He does say that the road that he chooses is more fair.

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.

Finally, the man decides that the second road is less traveled. Fewer people have made the choice to proceed the way he chooses.  Why would that make a difference? Perhaps, it has more obstacles to conquer and challenges to surmount.  Whatever his reasoning, the narrator takes the road and feels like that made a real difference in his life.

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

The structure of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” contributes to the poem’s effectiveness in a number of ways, including the following:

• The first two words of the poem – “Two roads” – introduce its key concern and central image.
• The first three lines of the poem immediately raise the central thematic issue of the work:

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

Frost does not lead up to this theme in any especially understated way. Instead, he announces it quite explicitly right at the beginning of the poem and thus, in a sense, puts the reader in the speaker’s shoes.  Just as the speaker cannot imagine how it might be possible to travel two roads at once, neither can we.

• Right from the start, it seems clear that the two roads are metaphorical – that they stand for something in addition to roads. No one would seriously wonder how he could walk down two literal roads at once, and so the roads here must be somewhat symbolic. Thus the poem almost at once begins to make the reader think and ponder.
• Frost emphasizes three times in the opening stanza (through three uses of the word “I”) the particular perspective of the poem’s speaker.  The speaker is a specific person, not a disembodied omniscient voice. Indeed, the lack of omniscience is central to the meaning of this poem. The speaker does not pretend to know everything. He is a single individual, like each of the poem’s readers.
• One of the most masterful moments of the poem is the abruptness and suddenness of the first half of line six.  That half-line catches us immediately by surprise. We had been given no reason to think that the speaker was about to make a sudden choice, but a sudden choice is precisely what he does make.
• The second stanza seems deliberately puzzling in its structure. At first the speaker suggests that one road is more heavily worn down by foot-traffic than the other, but by the end of the stanza he suggests that such traffic “Had worn them really about the same.” By structuring the stanza this way, and by delaying this crucial remark until the very end of the stanza, Frost creates another sense of surprise and contributes a strong element of ambiguity to the poem.
• Stanza three is also structured by a kind of give-and-take pattern: first the speaker announces his plan to come back to this fork in the road, but then he says he “doubted if I should ever come back” (15).  The structure of the poem thus presents a kind of “see saw” motion: assertions are made and then retracted or qualified. Just as the poem presents two roads as its key images, so the poem itself is composed in such a way as to make the speaker seem ambivalent, hesitant, and indecisive.
• Finally, even the final stanza raises more questions than it answers. It is structured in such a way (with the key line the final line) that it leaves us uncertain about the speaker’s attitude toward the choice he has made. In a sense, the poem brings us to an interpretive fork in the road: is he satisfied with his choice, or does he regret it? He doesn’t explicitly say; instead he leaves us hanging.

Although the rhyme-scheme of the poem is completely predictable, and although the meter of the poem contains no spectacular effects, other aspects of the poem's structure are surprising and intriguing.

The four stanzas of “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost revolve around the central extended metaphor of a fork in the road, which is compared to the choices that one must make in life. The speaker is a traveler in a “yellow wood,” and when he comes to that fork, he peers down one of the roads “as far as I could” to help him decide which road to take. At first the speaker states that the road he ends up choosing is “grassy and wanted wear.” One could interpret this part of the poem by saying that the speaker, by choosing the grassier, less traveled way, chooses the non-conventional way of life, refusing to follow the ways of others. The popular interpretation focuses on this as the central theme of the poem—that one must be the trailblazer and not just follow what other people do.

But we have to read closely and notice the interesting twist at the end of the second stanza, which seems to negate this interpretation.

Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

Thus, the two roads don’t seem to be that different from each other after all. Frost uses some alliteration in this stanza, emphasizing the road “was grassy and wanted wear.” The use of those “w’s” gives the poems a hypnotic and soft quality that allows us to move through the lines quickly as do the “th” sounds in “though as for that, the passing there” and the lulling “l’s” in “lay” and “leaves”:

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

This lovely flow of sounds without any harsh alliteration to break up the lines emphasizes the idea that these roads are indistinguishable; nothing makes one road stand out more than the other. There is no marking from the harsh “black” “step.” (Notice the way the “b” and “ck” sounds in “black” and the “st” and “p” sounds in “step” break up the earlier softer alliteration.) So how do you choose which road to take?

This is the central theme of the poem—that when we come to a crossroads in our life, we must make a significant decision that will alter our lives forever. But, again, how do we choose? Although the speaker says that he can always come back at some point in the future and take that other path, “the road not taken,” he admits that he probably won’t ever come back to this particular fork in the road again.

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

Once you travel down a path, you tend to keep going rather than turn around and start over. Or, if you do try and start over, you are not the same person that you were when you first stared at that fork in the road. You can’t “come back.”

The speaker then performs another final shift at the end. He suddenly shifts forward in time, imagining himself in the future, looking back at this momentous decision.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence.
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

When the speaker sees himself in the future, reflecting on this moment, he revises the story, returning to his first interpretation, that the path he chose was the “less traveled” one. He wants to see himself in this trailblazing way, as one who did not follow others but instead did things his own way. And yet, what do we make of that line, that his choice “has made all the difference.” What kind of difference? Did he make the right choice? Or is he looking back with regret? And how do we interpret the title of the poem? Is “The Road Not Taken” referring to the road that he actually took (but wasn’t “taken” by others)? Or is the speaker focusing on that road that he didn’t take, wondering how his life would be different if he took that other road? And here’s yet another interpretation: is this a poem regretting not so much choosing this path or that path, but the fact that we must choose at all? Wouldn’t we rather have both roads, as is stated in the first stanza:

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler…

The final alliteration in the last stanza introduces the only harsh alliteration, with the repetition of the “s” sound in “sigh” and “somewhere.”

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

This hissing quality to these words introduces a bitterness to this memory—the harshness of the idea that we cannot have both roads. We cannot enjoy all the world has to offer. We must travel this one life, one choice at a time.

The biggest metaphor in the poem is undoubtedly the roads as literal and figurative paths in life. Each path will lead to another, just as each decision we make in our lives leads to another, and eventually we end up far from where we started due to the long chain of events that follows each choice we make. The general mood created by the speaker's famous sigh in line 16 is sentimental and even nostalgic, which adds to the serious mood of the poem. 

The alliteration in the poem contributes to the lyrical quality of the poem. One of the only instances of Frost's alliteration is in line eight when the speaker says the path "wanted wear." However, instances of repeated consonants near each other also contribute to the poem's lyrical quality, like in line one with "yellow wood." 

"The road less traveled by" could symbolize a more unconventional path through life than the "roads" that others typically take. It could relate, for example, to the way one makes a living. Conventional vocations include business, law, medicine, education, engineering, and manual labor, while a more unconventional vocation could be that of an artist.

Unconventional ways of living could include choosing an itinerant lifestyle as opposed to settling down in a fixed location. Instead of marrying and raising a family, another choice could be opting for being single or childless. The speaker in Frost's poem had the courage to take an unconventional approach to some area of his life, and since he declares that it "has made all the difference," what is implied is that the choice turned out to be a good one for him.

In Robert Frost's immensely-popular--though often misinterpreted--poem, "The Road Not Taken," the road "less traveled by" symbolizes a couple of things. First, this phrase symbolizes thedesire to make choices for oneself. The narrator openly admits earlier in the poem that the two paths he encounters are equally well-traveled, but he later refers to the one he took as "less traveled." This is because he wants to make it seem as though he made a deliberate choice to be different than those who had come before him. The choice was not significant, but he wants to believe (or others to believe) it was important.

Second, the road "less traveled" symbolizes the possibilities lost by making a decision. The narrator wishes he could travel on both paths, but he must make a choice. He chooses one--on impulse--but continues to think about the opportunities he missed by not choosing the other path.

Frost's treatment of nature in his poems greatly differs from the one presented in Romanticism. Poets like Wordsworth glorified nature and thought it consisted of elements which were divine. Frost, in contrast, utilizes nature as a symbol of man's relation to the world he dwells in. Nature is used as a background of his poems and as an analogy to a complex human issue. Through nature and its elements, Frost desires to illustrate a more complex situation or problem that we contend with in our life.

To illustrate this, we can refer to one of his most famous poems - "The Road Not Taken." The poem is set in the woods in autumn, and the speaker comes to a fork in the road and has to decide which path he should choose. He analyzes the appearance of the two roads in front of him and wants to pick the one which is grassier, because it means it is less traveled. Although the poem seems to be about two paths in the yellow woods and the way they look, if we go beyond the literal meaning, we can see that Frost talks about life and dilemmas we are all faced with. The two paths symbolize the paths we take in life and how each path can offer something which will change our life for good. Once the speaker chooses a path, he cannot go back to the other path:

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.

What this symbolically means is that once we make a choice, we cannot go back a point when we were able to choose between certain options. Instead, we have to deal with the outcome of the choice we made. So, Frost focuses on the inevitability of making an important choice in life. Although the poem may be interpreted as a tale about two roads which diverge in the yellow woods, we can view this natural scene symbolically and realize that the focus is not on the beauty and importance of nature, but on human life and its concerns.

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 sighSomewhere 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 have highlighted the words and/or phrases which I find the most significant in understanding and appreciating the poem.

Firstly, the title. It is ironic that this should be the title of the poem, since its focus is on the road which has, in fact been taken. This is, however, significant since it indirectly emphasizes the point that the speaker wants to make - that he will always wonder what the outcome would have been if he had taken the alternative route. The argument holds true in both instances, for if he had taken the other route, the question would have been the same. The title and the poem itself speaks of the uncertainty facing us when we have to make a choice - we can never really know whether the choices we have made are the best or even the right ones, or not.

'Yellow wood' - the speaker paints a picture of probably mid-autumn - a time of dramatic change, epitomized especially by leaves changing color. This is a metaphor for the speaker who has reached a point in his life where he has undergone a change and therefore has to make a choice about where he wishes to go. The metaphor is extended throughout the poem for it deals with having to make a choice.

'... looked down one as far as I could ...' What is significant here is that this signifies the speaker's doubt. He is unsure of which direction to go and to find more surety, he wishes to see what the road holds ahead. Unfortunately, there's a turn and he can't see any further, but he has seen at least something. Once again, the metaphor also holds true in real life. We can surmise or make short-term predictions about our choices, but we cannot predict the final outcome as accurately as we would wish to. Somehow, this view later informs the speaker's decision to rather take the other route. It is subtly implied that he did not entirely like what he saw or that because he could not see far enough, he decided to allow destiny to decide his fate. He thus took the other road, which is not much different from the first. It is important to note, however, that he did not look down this particular road. The phrases highlighted in the second stanza supports what I mention above. Although there was not much difference between the roads, the speaker chooses the second alternative for it had a 'better claim' solely because 'it wanted wear'. One may conclude that this road also may have seemed a better option since it would be softer underfoot. Does this imply that the speaker chose the 'softer' option after what he had seen lay ahead (if only for a short distance) on the other path?

Oh, I kept the first for another day! The tone in this line sounds anguished, emphasized by 'oh' and the exclamation mark. It is as if the speaker regrets having made his initial decision. One may contend further that this anguish is supported by 'sigh' in the final stanza. The speaker may also be expressing wistfulness - what if I had taken the alternative route? There is, unfortunately, no turning back once the decision has been made, for the speaker realizes: I doubted if I should ever come back since, once a specific course is taken, it leads onto other different paths.

With a sigh expresses the speaker's contemplation regarding the choice that he has made. Many interpretations suggest that he is sad about having made this choice, but I disagree. The sigh expresses, the what if? aspect of his choice. Would things have been any different if he had taken the other road? There may be a suggestion of regret in that the choice that he had made, literally and figuratively, may not have had the outcome that he thought it would.

Somewhere ages and ages hence: The line suggests the eternal and universal application of the thoughts expressed by the speaker, for, having written this down, readers in the future will also wonder about the decisions they have made. The words of the speaker will hold for eternity. There are suggestions that this line also proclaims the idea of the poet's/speaker's undying spirit may recall this event far into the future, as Emily Dickinson does in her poem, 'Since I could not stop for Death' suggesting the idea of an eternal (spiritual) existence.

And that has made all the difference. I find this line remarkably vague. Is the suggestion that the speaker has made a choice, the difference? - i.e. that he had the courage to make a choice after all. Or is there something else? There is no definitive suggestion (except for 'sigh') of whether the choice was really the right one or not. The poet himself commented that the poem was 'tricky', so maybe he left us with this conundrum to obfuscate the issue even more.

The poem consists of 4 stanzas.  Each stanza is written in ABAAB rhyme scheme.  That means that lines 1, 3, and 4 rhyme with each other, and lines 2 and 5 rhyme with each other.  

As for the speaker and the audience, it's open to interpretation.  

Some readers think that Frost himself is the speaker, while other readers think that the speaker is a faceless, philosophical unknown.  It doesn't matter either way to me, because the topic and theme of the poem doesn't change depending on who the speaker is.  The poem brings up universal truths about decision making, and who speaks them doesn't change their validity.  

I do not think the poem is addressed to any one, specific individual.  I also don't think that it has an intended group audience.  I think the speaker is simply voicing his thoughts "out loud."  I talk to myself all the time.  My wife likes to make fun of me for it.  But for some reason, the act of voicing my thoughts helps bring clarity to what is on my mind.  I think the poem's speaker is doing the same thing with his poem.  He is giving very specific thoughts and feedback on the nature of decisions and consequences.  He's not doing it for anybody other than himself. 

The poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is a narrative poem that uses the literary elements of first person narration, the story arc, symbolism, and analogy. The poem tells a story in the voice of its only character. The poem's story arc consists of the following:

Inciting incident: the narrator comes to a fork in the road.

Conflict: the narrator must decide which way to go.

Rising action: the narrator evaluates both paths.

Climax: the narrator decides: "Oh, I kept the first for another day!"

Falling action/denouement: narrator doubts if he will ever come back and reflects on his decision.

Theme: taking the route less traveled can impact one's life immensely.

The symbol (or metaphor) of the poem is the diverging path; it represents decision points in life. 

The symbol actually becomes an analogy, which is an extended metaphor with corresponding parts. The diverging paths represent a decision point, evaluating the pros and cons of each path is the decision-making process, and proceeding down one path is the choice a person makes which makes it unlikely that he or she "should ever come back." After a decision is made, there is often a "sigh" where one wonders if the correct action was chosen. Years later a person can look back and see how that one decision affected many things in his or her life.

By telling a simple story that is an analogy for the decision-making process we all are familiar with, Frost created a memorable and meaningful poem that has been touching the hearts of readers for 100 years.

Robert Frost's “The Road Not Taken” presents a speaker who is forced to make a decision that he cannot really make—at least not with confidence.

Psychological criticism looks at literature by attempting to analyze it in terms of how the mind works. Often this is done with respect to the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung. One of the most important aspects of Freud's theory was the importance of the subconscious and its effects on the behavior and development of the individual.

In “The Road Not Taken,” Frost uses the symbol (symbols are another key element of psychological analysis and development) of two diverging roads to look at the speaker's subconscious.

As the speaker looks at the roads, trying to decide which to take, he says,

. . . long I stood
and looked down one as far as I could
to where it bent in the undergrowth.

Difficult choices are common, and by themselves they are not always the subject of intense psychological study. At this point in the poem, the speaker is weighing his options and trying to decide, but there is not any intense psychological activity evident, at least not much below the surface.

This begins to change with the next stanza. The narrator examines one road, and we would expect to hear him say he then examined the other, but instead he just takes the other road. Why? Well, a clue might be found in the first road's description. It “bent into the undergrowth,” probably meaning it became difficult to see where it led. Fear of the unknown is a common psychological phenomenon, and there is good reason for it. The speaker's motives may be something else. Here is how he explains his choice to take the second road:

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

At first, the narrator is saying he chose the second road because it appeared to be less traveled, which seems an odd reason since he has already demonstrated potential fear over the first road's uncertainty. He then begins to reveal confusion over the whole matter when he reverses himself and says the roads are actually about the same.

The implication in all of this is that the speaker does not understand his own motivations and desires. It is hard for him to decide, and when he does, it is hard to justify the decision he makes. He seems to have made an impetuous decision, one he is apparently powerless to change, suggesting a strong degree of subconscious activity in this decision-making process.

In the final stanza, we see the speaker immediately regrets his decision:

I shall be telling this with a sigh,
somewhere ages and ages hence.

The “sigh” indicates he is already agonizing over his decision and projecting that unhappiness to a point later in life, suggesting (but not proving) a possibly neurotic difficulty in taking decisive action and being satisfied with it.

Frost is looking at the psychological difficulty experienced by the speaker in the face of a life-altering decision. Some of us have more trouble with these types of decisions than other people do. The role of the subconscious and the effect of neurotic conditions can make them even more problematic. This doesn't mean that just because you have a hard time making a decision, or just because you regret a decision, that you have a psychological problem—these issues are common to all human beings to some extent.

The two roads in the poem function as a symbol for any decisions that feel significant in our lives. A symbol has both literal and figurative meaning; the speaker literally does come to a fork in the road in the woods where he walks, and those roads also convey figurative choices. Just as we can imagine the immediate effects of our choices, the speaker can see a little ways down each road. They look a little different but "the passing there / Had worn them really about the same." In other words, about the same number of people have traveled each road (or made each choice).

The speaker dreams of coming back to try the first road again, "Yet knowing how way leads on to way," he doubts if he "should ever come back." One road will lead to another, which will lead to another—just like choices; one choice leads to another choice, and another, and it becomes impossible to go back and see what would have happened had we made a different decision.

In the end, the speaker plans to tell people that he "took the [road] less traveled," but he's already told us that the roads were both well-traveled, that they "equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black" on that particular morning. Why would he plan to lie? Perhaps he mirrors the human desire to believe that our decisions are of critical moment and do make a big difference in our lives. Perhaps he wants to keep that idea alive for whomever he plans to tell this story. Either way, the roads operate as a symbol: they are literal roads that physically exist, but they also refer, figuratively, to choices that we feel are important or significant in our lives.

This poem is an example of an extended metaphor.

A metaphor is a comparison between two things that are not alike. In this case, a road and life are being compared. In this extended metaphor, the speaker never actually makes a direct comparison between life and the road.  In other words, he does not say life is a road.  Yet the entire poem implies it.

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

Although there is some argument about the interpretation of this last line, one can argue either way that it is about life.  Frost may be arguing that we should go our own way, or he may be arguing that it does not matter where we go.  Either way, the concept of road as a metaphor for life continues.

In life, as in roads, you have to make decisions.  The traveler came to a fork in the road, as we face choices in life, and once he chose he knew he could never go back.

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

In the end, the speaker realizes, once he makes his choice he will have to stick with it.  Choice made, he goes on with his life.  Life is a path, and there is a never-ending amount of decisions that need to be made.  

When we think of the style of a given work of literature, the word "style" is an umbrella-like term, referring to a number of different characteristics, including word choice, level of vocabulary, figurative langauge and poetic devices. Considering this excellent poem by Frost, therefore, we can say that the word choice or diction is very simple. It is a poem that does not attempt to use sophisticated vocabulary and is simple to understand. Frost seems to be deliberately writing in a style to ensure the accessibility of his work to all. When we think of poetic devices, it is clear that Frost has used poetic devices such as allliteration and assonance to make the poem flow smoothly as a result of these devices. Consider the alliteration in "Equally lay / In leaves" and then the assonance of the vowel sounds in words such as "roads," "yellow," "would," "could," "stood" and "looked." Clearly Frost has worked hard to create a flowing rhythm that is not noticeably artificial. Thus, when we think of this poem, we can characterise its style as being simple and not artificial.

Here's one possible thesis statement: Frost shows, in his poem "The Road Not Taken," that there is no road less traveled, that it is ultimately impossible to make a totally unique choice, because others have always made each choice available to us many times before.  He says that the second road is "just as fair" as the first, though it is somewhat grassier.  However, "as for that the passing there / Had worn them really about the same."  In other words, about the same number of people have taken each of these roads and so they are equally worn, even if they are different in appearance.  Further, both of them "that morning equally lay," and so his choice of which road to take, i.e. which choice to make in the symbolism of the poem, is relatively arbitrary and based on little else besides first impression.

Another possible thesis: The speaker in Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" plans to lie later on in his life, telling people that he took the road that fewer people had taken, because all humans want to believe that they make unique choices that have significant impact on our lives; however, the poem shows that such choices are ultimately unavailable to us.  To defend this thesis, you can rely on much the same evidence as above.  However, the narrator's plan to tell people that the road he chose, i.e. the decision he made, "made all the difference" in his life, explains why he will tell this story "with a sigh."  It is a falsehood, and whether he tells it for his own sake or his auditors' is unclear.  Perhaps it is for both, because it seems like human nature to feel that we've made important decisions that really have made a difference in the courses our lives take, although the poem does not support this as a possible reality.

I would say that one of the most important words that help to enhance the poem's meaning is in the first stanza.  The use of the word "diverge" helps to bring out the critical element of choice that the speaker must speak.  The fork in the road, paths which obviously "diverge," helps to convey the sense of incompatibility that the problem of choice often thrusts upon the individual.  It is in this setting in which the speaker understands the nature of his decision that is upon him, the true understanding of choice.  The use of the term "diverge" is significant because it establishes how choice can tear apart at the individual.  This understanding of choice is one in which individuals must seek to reconcile the division that the issue of choice brings upon them.  In seeking to find convergence from the point where the roads, "diverge" the speaker begins his analysis.  It is for this reason that "diverge" appears in the opening stanza.  It reappears in the closing stanza, almost to bring a sense of symmetry to what has been presented.  The implication in using the word again is that it is from divergence where convergence must emerge.  The issue of choice, its problematic condition, creates divergence, and from this, convergence must become present in order to make sense of our choices and this is what makes "all the difference."

You could attempt to use any of the literary theories available to analyze the poem, but some would be a bit of a stretch—or would take some rather large leaps into speculation.

It is also worth noting that critics often use more than one literary theory to analyze literature. They are not all mutually exclusive; so, for example, it would be possible to blend deconstructionist and feminist theories in an analysis of a piece like "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin.

In "The Road Not Taken," I encourage students to use, at least in part, deconstructionist theory in their literary criticism. I appreciate this lens because of the reader's key role in bringing meaning to the text. Because this poem presents at times conflicting images of these diverging path in the woods, it is worthwhile to have students examine why the author would make those choices. Consider the imagery in this section of text:

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.

Why did Frost initially describe one path as having the "better claim" and later comment that both paths "equally lay"? And how does that relate to the ending? Is this, then, a poem about making difficult choices, or is it a poem about how people like to believe that they have made the difficult choices?

A deconstructionist lens goes back to the text to dig out the supporting details. It asks the reader to consider how specific word choices, juxtaposition, structure, and imagery (among other things) are woven together to create meaning. This theory is only one of many lenses a reader can use to analyze this poem, but it works nicely.

A connotative meaning is an applied or secondary meaning.  A denotative meaning is the literal or surface meaning.

In this poem, the denotative "plot" is that there was a yellow wood (an autumn wood) in which two roads went in different directions.  The speaker is standing at the point where they diverge and trying to decide which one to take.

If we look beyond the literal, then the autumn wood can represent the autumn of life.  The road represents too separate paths in the speaker's life.  The speaker is trying to decide which path to take.  One path seems "less-traveled" than the other, although the speaker admits he can see little difference.  However, he implies that his "less-traveled" path is not the one usually taken by adults.  It seems mysterious and exciting.  The speaker is trying to decide - do I follow what everyone else has been doing, or do I try something different?  The speaker decides to try something different; he "took the road less traveled."  He says with a sigh that this "has made all the difference."  We are left to feel that this decision was a wrong one.  The speaker makes sure we understand that he can't go back and change the path he chose, and the solemn nature of the poem suggests that the path was a poor choice:

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

We are finally left with the sense that life is full of decisions which must be made, and that "somewhere ages and ages" in the future, we may look back and regret or blame our choices.

The speaker of “The Road Not Taken” is traveling through the woods when he faces a fork in the road. He is thus faced with making a decision, and he weighs his options carefully, trying to determine the best path to take.

The roads become a metaphor for those choices, and the significance of choosing the road is that the decision is final, so the speaker feels he must choose wisely. The speaker wants to know the eventual destination of those roads, so he looks down them as far as he possibly can. Yet he realizes that he can’t see where each road will eventually take him because they turn and bend into the undergrowth, obscuring his view. This fact reflects the reality that people often cannot know the full consequences and outcomes of their choices when they make them.

As mentioned before, the speaker feels that his choice is significant in part because he knows it is permanent. The speaker hopes to one day return to this fork in the road and choose the other path, but he realizes that his choice will likely take him down a series of roads after this one, and thus it’s highly unlikely that he will ever be able to return to this point in his life.

Another significance of the two roads is that, somewhat paradoxically, they are not very significant. Although the speaker feels that he must make his decision carefully, he acknowledges that the roads are essentially identical. As such, the decision is relatively meaningless, permanent though it may be.

One thing that Robert Frost does to avoid using the word "road" over and over again throughout this poem is to use pronouns instead of "road." For example, line five is as follows:

To where it bent in the undergrowth

"It" refers to one of the two roads. This pronoun is used again in line eight. In line ten, the narrator uses "them" instead of "roads."

For much of the rest of the poem, Frost substitutes various other words to stand-in for "road." The stand-in word is more often than not meant to be followed by the word "road," but Frost simply avoids using the word "road" and lets readers assume that the road is what he is talking about. For example, let's look at lines two and four:  

And sorry I could not travel both [roads]
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one [road] as far as I could

I took the one less traveled by

"The Road Not Taken" states that the two paths are just that: paths in a "yellow wood," one of which is more grassy and "wants wear." Typically, the symbolism is for choices in life that will have a profound effect on the future. The narrator is faced with two major options, each of which is "really about the same," but one of which he thinks is the more unusual path. Deciding to take the path "less traveled," or the path that most people avoid, the narrator muses that he might regret his decision later on. Since hindsight only comes from experience, the narrator cannot second-guess his choice now; in the future, he might look back "with a sigh" and wish that he was able to take the other path instead. Major decisions in life often lead to regret or second-guessing in hindsight, but at the moment of decision, one can only "look down the path as far" as possible, trying to predict if the decision will be the correct one. Without the power of prophecy, though, the narrator can only make what he thinks is the best decision at the time, no matter what happens in the future.

Here are some words in "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost that are used in an unexpected way for a modern audience:

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" : The phrase "yellow wood" is figurative. If taken literally, it would mean wood that itself was yellow. However, by using this imagery, the unexpected phrasing instead calls to mind a forest in autumn, where the leaves and light have been turned golden by the season. 

"Though as for that the passing there" : This is an interesting use in that Frost uses a gerund, or a verb form of a word used as a noun, to refer to other travelers on the path. Instead of explaining that other people had used both paths, he makes the use of the paths a state of being that seems more like a natural event than caused by people. 

In The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost the narrator reveals his confusion in the contradictory expression of his feelings. The poem may be about one occasion when making a choice can change a life (or perhaps not, such is the ambiguity of the poem), but it also represents far more than an isolated episode and reveals the effects of choice on life's journey as a whole. Frost wants the reader to recognize that not all decisions should be considered equally and any attempt to do so results in a kind of uncertainty such as the narrator must now face as he tries to persuade himself that his decision has "made all the difference." Based on the rest of the poem and how similar the paths are, being "really about the same," this is unlikely. This makes the context very important in understanding Frost's intentions. 

Frost talks about being "one traveler" and having the capacity to experience both choices which would require a far more adventurous spirit than this narrator possesses. Out of context, this could be the beginning of a journey in which a traveler relishes the opportunities that being in a position to make a choice brings. However, in the context of the poem, and for the narrator, the choice causes a dilemma and is not actually appreciated. It only creates stress and a mood of disappointment because the narrator does not know what he might be missing and it is unlikely that he will ever know. This reveals the personal aspects of this poem and introduces a satirical edge which may be overlooked by a reader who wants to use the poem for inspiration, hoping that his or her decisions will also make a "difference."

The difference that it has made can also be interpreted independently and unexpectedly to reveal that this decision is not about how the decision has changed the narrator's life but how it has changed his outlook and perhaps prevented him from making the most of his choice, choosing rather to dwell on missed opportunities ( as he "doubted" the effects of his choice anyway). The narrator's mention that he "took the one less traveled by" is also more about his attempts to convince himself that he made the right decision. As the words themselves are not particularly poetic, Frost leaves it to the reader to put it into his own context and use these words (the same, traveler, all the difference, less traveled and doubted) and interpret them to suit his own individual circumstances.

Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken," talks of the narrator- possibly Frost himself- standing at a fork in the road in the middle of a wood, and contemplating which path he should take. He looks to one that has been often walked on and has seen a lot of wear. But then he looks to the other, one which is more grassy and fresh looking, that has received much less attention. Torn between the two, he stands there and ponders which path he should take- ultimately landing upon the less-explored territory. Upon reflection, Frost says in his final line "and that has made all the difference." 

Now, looking at this work at face value, it is indeed about a man travelling in the woods and talking about two roads. However, a poem- no matter the author- can never be taken at face value. As readers of poetry, we must always assume that poetry is rife with metaphors, imagery, and hidden themes and meanings begging to be uncovered- and it is our job to uncover them. 

With that said, Robert Frost's roads are not literal "roads," but rather an extended metaphor for the choice that any person must make as to what path they wish to take in life. In this famous poem, Frost explores the proverbial "fork in the road" that everyone faces, in which they must make a life-altering decision about who they are and what they expect out of life and how they will define themselves. In this poem, both the author and the reader find themselves contemplating "should I follow the beaten path? or shall I strike out on my own?" Ultimately, it is the decision between what is comfortable and secure, and what is new and unknown. Frost decides to start down the "path less travelled by," though not without some trepidation. He is aware that once he starts down this path, there may be no going back. He understands that he may regret his decision later, but it nevertheless needs to be made. Whatever path he takes, it will make all the difference in his life- good, bad, or indifferent. It is a common interpretation that Frost is advocating "the road less travelled by" as the better path of the two, indicating that the poem speaks of "not following the crowd," but this is only one interpretation. It can be argued that Frost valued the two paths before him equally- as they both have equal value- but merely had to make a choice. We can see the difficulty at this decision when he says in the first stanza:

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

Frost contemplates these roads for a long time, and weighs his decision carefully- wishing he could take both. In so doing, he gives both equal credit and importance. And though he decides on one road, he says in the final stanza that he, "shall be telling this with a sigh/ Somewhere ages and ages hence," the "sigh" indicating that he may still wonder what would have happened or how his life could have been different if he had only taken the other path. 

Literature- poetry especially- is widely open to interpretation. A work can mean countless different things to many different people, and there is no real "right" answer so long as you can support your argument with the text. This interpretation of Frost's poem is only one of many, but one thing for certain is that the reader must never take a work of poetry at face value. There is almost always a deeper meaning.  

Each stanza of "The Road Not Taken" follows this rhyme scheme: abaab. The poem is a metaphor about choices in life. The speaker notes that both roads looked "really about the same," even though he tries to convince himself that he took the less traveled road. The implication is not that he took the less traveled road. In the last stanza, the speaker, later in his life, notes that he will say he took the road less traveled. But he says this with a "sigh" and this indicates that he's only saying he took the less traveled road. The sigh also indicates that he will wonder where the other road/choice might have led him. 

In the last stanza, to keep the abaab rhyme scheme, Frost ended the middle line with "I" and "I" also begins the next line. This might have been a matter of idiosyncrasy and/or keeping to the rhyme scheme. 

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

But, the repetition of "I" could be a parallel to the two roads/choices the speaker's metaphor addresses. The repetition also shifts the emphasis from roads to the speaker himself. This shift is notable because this poem is only metaphorically about roads; it is about personal choices. 

I think that any critical appreciation of Frost's poetry has to reside with the reader themselves.  Frost's unique ability to take common objects and connect an aspect of human experience to them is what makes his writing so profound and introspective on many levels.  With this, critical appreciation becomes something that is geared on the part of the individual.  At the same time, I think one could take many aspects of his poetry and apply a critical distillation to it.  For example, in "The Road Not Taken," there is an extreme praise of human freedom and action.  The speaker in the poem decides to take a path that others have not taken and must come to the fact that this choice has "made all the difference."  It is a poem that explores freedom in a unique light because it does not necessarily praise it, but analyzes it as a reality that individuals exercise, helping to differentiate them and provide distinction to their identities.  The opening line of the last stanza of telling this narrative "with a sigh" helps to highlight this.  The exploration of freedom in many different ways is one element that makes Frost's poem so intricate and rich with thought.

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker finds himself at a point of decision - which road should he take? Deeper than the obvious choice of which way to travel, this reflects an individual in the autumn of life trying to determine a direction for the remainder of that life; to follow the commonly traveled path or "the one less traveled by."

The speaker recognizes that either path has merit. There is some desire to be able to travel both paths, but the speaker realizes only one path can be traveled at a time and that s/he probably would not be able to revisit this place in the road (or in life) and choose to take the path not chosen in the poem.

Eventually, the decision is made to follow the path that has not been used as frequently. The speaker understands that this decision will make "all the difference" in the remainder of his/her travels, and his/her life. There is some regret ("telling with a sigh") at not being able to experience the other alternative, but I interpret the poem as reflecting acceptance of the decision that was made.

Robert Frost denied that his poem "The Road Not Taken" had the deep, existential meaning that many have wished to give it, insisting that he had written his verse in order to "fool his way around" in a teasing reflection on his friend Edward Thomas, with whom he took walks frequently. On such strolls, Thomas would castigate himself for not having selected another path no matter which way they went. And, yet, despite Thomas's own characterization of the poem, "The Road Not Taken" as "the fun of the thing," it became very popular as a poem of deep meaning. 

Interestingly, Frost himself contributed to the idea that there can, indeed, be a deeper significance clothed in metaphor in his poem as he wrote in one of his notebooks,

Nothing ever so sincere
That unless it's out of sheer
Mischief and a little queer [odd]
It won't prove a bore to hear.

So, the concept of "many a word of truth is spoken in jest" may, indeed, exist in Frost's poem about two roads. Alluding to these thoughts of Frost's own, the reader can, then, reasonably interpret the ambivalence in choice of paths that the persona of "The Road Not Taken" experiences as a metaphor for the indecisiveness of man that often proves tragic or, in the very least, disconcerting. And, of course, the "road" can be perceived as the "road" of life; that is, the many choices, or paths of action in a person's life.

Many of the elements of literature appear in Robert Frost's poem “The Road Not Taken.” Let's look at a few.

First, you might talk about symbolism in the poem. The two roads that the traveler faces represent the various choices a person has to make in life. The traveler cannot see very far down either of them. He must choose, knowing that he will never get the chance to travel the other road, just as people must choose one option over others in life with the knowledge that they cannot go back and try out the others.

Another element Frost engages is point of view. The speaker of the poem relates his narrative through first-person point of view. He tells his story directly, and this allows the poet to present a tone that is both regretful and hopeful. The speaker would have liked to travel both roads, yet he knows that the one he has chosen “has made all the difference.”

There is even a gentle irony in this poem. The road that is less traveled is the one that made the difference in the speaker's life. We might not expect that, yet it is true. This tells us that people must sometimes strike out on a different path — the path that does not follow the crowd — if they are to find meaning in life and discover themselves.

Finally, you might choose to write about the poem's rhythm and rhyme. The steady iambic tetrameter and regular rhyme scheme walks us through the poem as the traveler might walk down his chosen road. Life is not always steady like the rhythm and rhyme schemes of the poem; it keeps moving along, and we have no choice but to go with it.

Robert Frost's choice of language illustrates the concept/theme of a journey in his poem "The Road Not Taken." Word choice is a delicate art in poetry. Poets, and authors alike, pay close attention to how words sound when spoken aloud. They choose to use alliteration or assonance based upon how they wish a line of poetry to sound to the reader and listener. 

The sound of words is also important when illustrating the importance of a concept or a theme. In regards to Frost's poem, his word choice illuminates the idea of the journey (in both direct and indirect ways). 

For example, the following words illustrate Frost's direct nature regarding the journey: travel, passing, lead, took, and trodden. 

As for Frost's indirect way of illustrating a journey, the following words/phrases illustrate this: wanted wear (illustrating something which wants to be traveled upon) and come back (illustrating a journey which has already taken place). 

"The Road Not Taken" is a poem made up of four five-line stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAAB. For example, "wood," "stood," and "could" in the first, third, and fourth lines rhyme in the first stanza, while "both" and "growth" rhyme in the second and fifth lines of that stanza.

The meter is based on an iambic tetrameter scheme. Strictly speaking this means there are four two-beat syllables with the stress falling on the second syllable in each group. For instance, in line one of the poem, the beats fall as follows: "two ROADS di VERGED ..." However, Frost plays with this scheme slightly by adding an extra beat to every line, to create nine syllable lines. This means, for example, in line one, that "two ROADS di VERGED in a YEL low WOOD" with the beats "in a" quickly slurred together as unstressed beats. The same effect occurs with the "could not" in line two.

Frost also uses punctuation to add emphasis to two of the poem's lines. "Oh, I kept the first for another day!" ends with an exclamation point. This, along with the "Oh" at the beginning of the line, emphasizes the emotional intensity of this particular thought, underlining the (possibly humorous) regret the speaker feels at having to give up taking one of the roads. The second use of punctuation at the end of a line to create emphasis comes in the line:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

The long dash at the end emphasizes that even as he makes his decision, the speaker is still pausing and hesitating.

At a time when many poets were experimenting with poetic structure, Frost shows his control of his craft in his ability to use a very regular and traditional rhyme scheme and meter and make it look utterly effortless.

In "The Road Not Taken," by Robert Frost, the speaker has a decision to make. He comes to a fork in the road. "Two roads diverged" and the speaker is trying to decide which road to take. One road appears to be less traveled. The speaker decides to take the less traveled road and he claims at the end of the poem that the less traveled road has made all the difference in his life.

The poet wrote the poem in first person which could indicate that the speaker is the poet:

Frost wrote the poem in the first person, which raises the question of whether the speaker is the poet himself or a persona, a character created for the purposes of the poem.

No doubt, life is about choices. We have choices to make and the speaker is worried that he has made the wrong choice. He worries that he will have regrets and will be telling his story with a sigh, "somewhere ages and ages hence." He took the road less traveled by. He saved the other road for another day, and now he worries that he shall never get the opportunity to take the other road for "way leads on to way." 

Life is filled with decisions. There are different roads that one can take. The speaker is torn between two roads. He takes the road less traveled by. Now, he wonders about the road not taken. He can only imagine what life would have held if only he had been able to take the road not taken. This poem is about the road the speaker did not take. 

The speaker seems to be a nonconformist. He takes the road that less people traveled. He takes the road that will be lonely for less people are traveling it. The speaker has to travel alone. In one sense, this can be a positive thing for he will have less distractions. 

In the end, the speaker takes the road less traveled by and claims that it has made all the difference. The reader questions whether or not the speaker took the right road. The speaker seems to be upset at having had to make a choice between the two roads. But the speaker could only be "one traveler." The speaker deliberated for "long [he] stood," trying to decide which road to take. In the end, the reader can only suppose that the speaker took the right road for he claims it has made all the difference:

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

Whether you read the poem literally or metaphorically, it can be viewed as a poem about the missed opportunities and a sense of regret one experiences as a result of that.

Literally speaking, the poem is about a traveler who is standing in the woods, looking at two roads which diverge. He feels sad that he has to pick one path and no matter how long he looks down one path, he cannot predict what it holds. Even when he chooses the path which he calls "less traveled," he cannot suppress that feeling of regret arising from the fact that he will never be able to discover what the other path offered. Would it make his journey more eventful? Would he feel more fulfilled or not? He will never find out. And that knowledge evokes a sense of sadness.

Metaphorically speaking, the poem is about making an important choice in life. Once that choice is made, one's life will be altered for good. There is no going back. The speaker feels disappointed that choosing one path will always prevent him from discovering what the other path offers. He is aware that once the choice is made, he cannot change it. He has to stick with the choice he made.

Therefore, whether we read this poem literally or metaphorically, a sense of regret resulting from the knowledge that we have to choose between the opportunities we are offered ties both interpretations together.

The one piece of figurative language that seems to rise above the rest in Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken," is symbolism.

Defined, symbolism is:

...when an object is meant to be representative of something or an idea greater than the object itself.

Though some people may see a contradiction, the "popular" understanding of the symbol of a path that comes to a fork in the woods is that the speaker has arrived at the point where he must make an important life-choice. His sense of individualism drives him to take the path that has been traveled more lightly so as not to follow the "common" path. Though the poem simply describes a walk in the woods, finding symbolism gives "The Road Not Taken" a much deeper meaning to an observant reader.

Personification is also used by Frost. He speaks of the path that "wanted wear." Personification occurs when human characteristics are given to non-human things. In this case, a path cannot "want" anything, but is personified by the author. Also, "having perhaps the better claim" may also be personification in saying that the path "deserved" or "asked" (referring to "claim") to be trodden upon because it had not been worn down.

Finally, we could say that "sigh" is an example of onomatopoeia, which is defined as...

...natural sounds [that] are imitated in the sounds of words (eg buzz, hiss)

In other words, it is when a word represents the sound that it stands for. The word "sigh" mimics the sound we make when we sigh.

In "The Road Not Taken," Frost uses imagery as the speaker makes his decision about which path to take. The one that is "grassy" and "wanted wear" wins out over the other. It is a contrast: the road that looks more travelled likely represents safety. It is a conservative path that has carried many other people in the direction it offers. The other path requires more courage and a willingness to take chances.

The final stanza utilizes future tense as the speaker projects himself "ages and ages hence." In it, he expresses the sentiment that the less common path has "made all the difference." This, however, offers some ambiguity. It is not clear whether the difference will have been positive; all that is known is that he expects to live a long life and pinpoint this decision as the one that sets his trajectory.

Another feature of the poem's setting is the imagery of a "yellow wood." In a deciduous forest, this color would indicate that it is late in the year. This could represent that the season for the speaker to make his decision is drawing to its end, adding a sense of urgency to his commitment to one path or the other.

The fact that the speaker understands that returning to this spot is unlikely adds a note of realism to the poem's tone.

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost combines traditional poetic form with colloquial diction. The main elements of the poem's poetic form are use of iambic tetrameter with frequent inversions and anapestic substitutions and its rhyme scheme and stanzaic form.

The poem is divided into four five-line stanzas rhymed ABAAB. Most lines are end-stopped rather than enjambed and use monosyllabic rhyme words. The stanzaic structure helps guide the reader through the poem, creating clear distinctions between the changes in the narrator's focus. The first stanza tells of the narrator being confronted by a choice between two roads, the second of the narrator choosing the one less traveled, the third reflects back on the narrator's choice, and the final stanza tells of the consequences of the choice. 

The use of conversational diction and frequent rhythmical variations enhances the universality of the poem. Rather than this being a narrator claiming some special or exceptional sensibility, we get a sense of an ordinary person going out for an ordinary walk, suggesting that the poem has meaning for all our lives, not just those of people with unique poetic sensibilities. 

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost compares two paths in a wood which go in different directions. The reader recognizes the symbolic message in the descriptions and can relate to the narrator's dilemma as he ponders his choice and laments the opportunities he may be missing on the other path. The whole poem is a metaphor for life as a journey with the narrator comparing himself to a traveler who considers how the choices he makes now will affect outcomes in the future.

In terms of its metaphorical value, the poem also serves as a warning to the reader not to dwell on or obsess over missed opportunities but to learn from the narrator's mistakes and actually relish decisions made rather than living in regret and uncertainty. Furthermore, Frost wants the reader to realize that not all decisions are life-changing- note how "the passing there Had worn them really about the same," indicating that this particular decision may not have made much of a difference in fact, although the narrator would not agree. 

In terms of individual comparisons, there are not many and the real value lies in the fact that Frost uses something tangible  to get the message across. Frost does use personification to compare the two paths when he talks how one path has "the better claim" and both paths "lay in leaves" as if comparing the paths to people. He also compares the path that the narrator does not choose to a keepsake, something that he can put away "for another day."

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost uses an extended metaphor.  The entire road concept represents a literal road and the figurative one signifies choices that one faces in life. 

When the person comes to a "y"  or fork in the road, the road is in the woods. It must be fall since the leaves are yellow.

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

Inferentially, the figurative meaning of the woods is that the surrounding area would symbolize the life of the man who has to make the decision.

The man stands in the woods facing the roads and thinks. "Which way do I go?" Figuratively, he means that life has presented me with two different paths to follow. 

Which one do I choose? One looks less traveled but so does the other one.  One has green grass but so does the other one.  Well, he makes a decision and sticks with it.   The narrator decides on the one on the right and apparently, good or bad (hopefully for the good) that has made a big difference in his life. Those options he list about the road would things that he would have to consider in making the right life decision. 

The narrator does hope that he will be able to come back to this same wooded area and this same fork in the road again and tavel the other path.   However, he really doubts that will happen.

In life,  a person often gets only one chance to accomplish something. A career, a marriage, a business, a decision--any of these choices could have been faced by the narrator.  There all sorts of things to consider, yet it takes courage to take a stand or make a difficult decision. Sometimes a person gets lost in those figurative woods and has choose which way to go...that is what Frost was talking about in life.

A great poem by a literary giant...probably one of the most frequently quoted in all of literature.   

Two road diverged in a yellow wood, And I--
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.

The traveler describes the road he takes as the one "less traveled by." He also describes it as "grassy" and says that it "wanted wear," meaning that it is not worn out by people using it. The fact that it is "grassy" also means it is not well traveled, because if it were--if many feet and horses' hooves had trod on it--the grass would be stamped down and killed. 

He says that the road he takes, like the road he doesn't, was covered with "leaves no step had trodden black." Like the grass, the untrampled leaves indicate that few people have gone down this particular road. 

We also are told this road is in a woods, meaning the narrator is going down a path that is shady and a bit mysterious: he can't be quite sure what is to come. 

In "The Road Not Taken" the second road is a metaphor for the choices one has actually made in life: "I doubted if I should ever come back" the poet reflects, "knowing how way leads on to way...."

Often there comes a time in a person's life in which two appealing opportunites are placed before him/her. As one must, a choice is made, then other decisions follow the first until one is committed to a certain way of life.  To return to the initial crossroads is often impossible because of circumstances such as personal relationships, financial obligations, etc.: "And that has made all the difference."

As the author Thomas Wolfe remarked, "You can't go home again."  One cannot return to the original unencumbered, innocent state before one's choice of a "road."

First, concerning Frost's "The Road Not Taken," the speaker doesn't "have" literary devices, he "uses" literary devices.

And the central literary device he uses is extended metaphor.  In literature, roads and journeys often symbolize the roads or journeys of life, and the speaker's use here is no exception.  The road the speaker chooses to travel is metaphorically compared to the road he takes in life, and the road he chooses not to take is metaphorically compared to the road he does not take in life. 

That said, the road the speaker chooses not to take is really the center of the poem itself.  The poem is about regrets concerning missed opportunities.  More specifically, the poem is about the speaker's obsession with missed opportunities.  He is indecisive and regrets not being able to take both roads, even though doing so is impossible. 

The speaker will tell the story years later, as a regret, a "sigh," perhaps a chuckle.  He doesn't know what difference his choice of road will make, and the roads are pretty much the same, by his own admission:

Though as for that [there being a difference between the two roads], the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,...

But in the poem's present he can see himself, having obsessed over the difference for years, telling listeners that a great difference existed.

Concerning other literary devices, the enotes Study Guide on the poem says the following:

Frost composed this poem in four five-line stanzas with only two end rhymes in each stanza (abaab). The flexible iambic meter has four strong beats to the line. Of the technical achievements in “The Road Not Taken,” one in particular shows Frost's skill at enforcing meaning through form. The poem ends:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The indecision of the speaker—his divided state of mind—is heightened by the repetition of “I,” split by the line division and emphasized by the rhyme and pause. It is an effect possible only in a rhymed and metrical poem—and thus a good argument for the continuing viability of traditional forms.

One of the simplest literary devices to find in this poem is imagery.  Imagery refers to sensory experience represented through language.  So, any time the speaker describes something that you can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch, the poet is using imagery.  We can identify the first line as imagery, then: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood."  The leaves are all yellow, telling us that it is fall, and there are two roads that split away from one another between the trees. 

We can also identify symbolism in this poem, if not before the final stanza then in the final stanza.  The speaker equates one road with having made "all the difference" in his life (line 20).  Although it is lie because he has already said that both roads were "worn [...] about the same," it shows us that the roads have more meaning that just their literal one (10).  Thus, we can understand that the roads symbolize choices in one's life.

Robert Frost makes use of some classic symbolism and imagery in the poem “The Road Not Taken.” The idea of using a fork in the road to symbolize the making of an important decision is not unique to Frost, but he does an exceptional job of developing the symbol and imbuing it with some memorable imagery.

He establishes the symbolic theme of the poem immediately with his first line, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” He continues to talk about the roads throughout all four stanzas. Some students ask how we can be sure he is creating symbols, rather than just writing about two roads that he happens to see. The answer to that lies in the fourth and final stanza.

"I shall be telling this with a sigh/ Somewhere ages and ages hence:/ Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I/ I took the one less traveled by/ And that has made all the difference.”

Only a major decision would affect the speaker so deeply that he would think about it years and years later.

Frost’s imagery establishes the fact that the decision is being made later in life. The wood (meaning the woods, or forest) is yellow; therefore, the season is autumn. This correlates with middle age on the part of the speaker.

The third stanza supplies another important image:

"Both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden black."

This expresses the idea that either road will be a road just for him—no one else has travelled it. In other words, his life is his own, a unique event.

One of the links below will lead you to a recording of Frost himself reading the poem.

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost uses fairly simple colloquial diction despite following traditional poetic form and having occasional syntactic inversions. The poem consists of four five-line stanzas rhymed ABAAB in iambic tetrameters with frequent anapestic substitutions. The rhyme words are mainly monosyllabic. 

The restraint in using poetic devices such as figures of speech gives the poem a conversational tone, approximating what Frost in his critical works discusses as the "sound of sense." Phrases such as "Had worn them really about the same" project a narrative persona of an ordinary traveler, perhaps talking to a friend on returning from a walk.

This casual tone constructs meaning by suggesting that the rhetorical situation of the poem is not one of a momentous choice, but rather a casual decision, of the sort any person might make while taking a walk. Thus when we discover that the decision has made "all the difference" we are led to conclude that the ordinary small decisions we make in our lives can have major and unforeseen consequences. For example, a student choosing a certain seat in a classroom, which is a fairly casual decision, might leading to sitting next to a future spouse; although the decision itself was fairly casual, the outcome, meeting someone you marry, changes every aspect of your life.

The extended metaphor of this poem is that of a road in the forest which forks into two paths; the path is the journey of life, and the forks are symbolic of the choices people make (or don't make) as they live out their invidividual lives.  The most excruciating part of making a choice, for many people, lies in what they may miss when forsaking the other choice--in other words, what they miss on "the road not taken."  Frost describes that feeling of trying to predict how the choice one leans away from might turn out:  "long I stood/ And looked down one as far as I could/To where it bent in the undergrowth."  He also speaks metaphorically of how one will likely not get a chance to undo what choices he or she makes:  "Yet knowing how way leads onto way/I doubted that I should ever come back." 

To my way of thinking, the whole poem is metaphorical.

If you take the poem literally, there is very little metaphor in the poem.  The only place where you can really argue that metaphor is being used in this line:

Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

This is metaphorical because he's not really saying that he's going to keep following various roads and be unable to ever return to the spot where he stands.

But really, the whole poem is a metaphor.  The idea of forks in roads is just a metaphor for decisions that have to be made in life.  They are like forks in the road in that we have to choose which direction to go.

Personfication is a figure of speech whereby inanimate objects, such as stones or trees, are given human qualities and therefore a comparison is created. An example would be talking about a clock staring at you with its face. Clearly, clocks can't literally stare, but the face is compared to a human face and thus the clock is given the human action of staring.

Bearing in mind this definition, we can see that actually no things, concepts or objects are personified in this poem. The poem is actually told in a very simple style which is sparse of figurative language and literary terms. You would benefit from analysing this poem focusing on the imagery that is employed instead and considering what the scenario is used to represent.