The narrator comes upon a fork in the road.He believes both paths are equally well-traveled and appealing.He decides on one and tells himself that he will one day come back to this fork to try the other road.However,he realizes that it is unlikely that he will be able to come back to this specific point in time because his choice of path simply leads to other forks in the road ahead and,consequently,other decisions.The narrator ends with a nostalgic note,wondering how different things would have been had he chosen the other path--the theme of the poem,so to speak.
This poem is one of Frost’s most beloved works.It is believed that the poem is a nostalgic commentary on choices in life.The narrator decides to seize the day and express himself as an individual by choosing the road that is “less traveled by.” As a result of this decision,his life is fundamentally different from what it would have been had he chosen the more well-traveled path.
The poem is extremely popular because every reader can relate to the narrator in this regard:having to choose between two paths without having any knowledge of where each road will lead.Moreover,the narrator’s decision to choose the “less traveled” path demonstrates his courage.Rather than taking the safe path that others have traveled,the narrator prefers to venture.
It is only when he is an old man that the narrator looks back on his life and decides to attach such importance to this particular decision in his life.In the first three of the four stanzas,the narrator shows no sense of remorse for his decision nor any acknowledgement that such a decision might be important to his life.Yet,as an old man,the narrator attempts to give a sense of order to his past and perhaps explain why certain things have happened to him.Of course,the excuse that he takes the road “less traveled by” is false,but the narrator still clings to this decision as a defining moment of his life,not only because of the path that he chooses but also because,more importantly perhaps,he has made a decision for himself.
