Written in 1915 in England, "The Road Not Taken" is one of Robert Frost's—and the world's—most well-known poems. Although commonly interpreted as a celebration of rugged individualism, the poem actually contains multiple different meanings. The speaker in the poem, faced with a choice between two roads, takes the road "less traveled," a decision which he or she supposes "made all the difference." However, Frost creates enough subtle ambiguity in the poem that it's unclear whether the speaker's judgment should be taken at face value, and therefore, whether the poem is about the speaker making a simple but impactful choice, or about how the speaker interprets a choice whose impact is unclear.
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The Full Text of “The Road Not Taken”
1Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
2And sorry I could not travel both
3And be one traveler, long I stood
4And looked down one as far as I could
5To where it bent in the undergrowth;
6Then took the other, as just as fair,
7And having perhaps the better claim,
8Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
9Though as for that the passing there
10Had worn them really about the same,
11And both that morning equally lay
12In leaves no step had trodden black.
13Oh, I kept the first for another day!
14Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
15I doubted if I should ever come back.
16I shall be telling this with a sigh
17Somewhere ages and ages hence:
18Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
19I took the one less traveled by,
20And that has made all the difference.
The Full Text of “The Road Not Taken”
1Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
2And sorry I could not travel both
3And be one traveler, long I stood
4And looked down one as far as I could
5To where it bent in the undergrowth;
6Then took the other, as just as fair,
7And having perhaps the better claim,
8Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
9Though as for that the passing there
10Had worn them really about the same,
11And both that morning equally lay
12In leaves no step had trodden black.
13Oh, I kept the first for another day!
14Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
15I doubted if I should ever come back.
16I shall be telling this with a sigh
17Somewhere ages and ages hence:
18Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
19I took the one less traveled by,
20And that has made all the difference.
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“The Road Not Taken” Summary
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“The Road Not Taken” Themes
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Choices and Uncertainty
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Individualism and Nonconformity
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Making Meaning
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Road Not Taken”
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Lines 1-3
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, -
Lines 3-5
long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; -
Lines 6-8
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear; -
Lines 9-12
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. -
Lines 13-15
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 16-17
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence: -
Lines 18-20
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
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“The Road Not Taken” Symbols
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Diverging Roads
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The Road Less Traveled
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“The Road Not Taken” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Extended Metaphor
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Irony
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Epizeuxis
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Repetition
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Enjambment
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Assonance
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“The Road Not Taken” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Diverge
- Yellow wood
- Undergrowth
- Fair
- Wanted
- Passing
- Trodden
- Hence
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Road Not Taken”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Road Not Taken” Speaker
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“The Road Not Taken” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Road Not Taken”
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More “The Road Not Taken” Resources
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External Resources
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"The Most Misread Poem in America" — An insightful article in the Paris Review, which goes into depth about some of the different ways of reading (or misreading) "The Road Not Taken."
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Robert Frost reads "The Road Not Taken" — Listen to Robert Frost read the poem.
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Book Review: "The Road Not Taken," by David Orr — Those looking for an even more in-depth treatment of the poem might be interested in David Orr's book, "The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong."
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Frost
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