Rethinking ‘The Road Not Taken’ and the Choices That Shape Us

In 1915 Robert Frost wrote this poem while he was living in England. It was published in the Atlantic Monthly in August 1915 and later included in one of his collections titled Mountain Interval. Most of us have heard this poem, learning it in our secondary education; however, it is often misinterpreted as a celebration of taking the unconventional path in life. While that is a legitimate interpretation, in my opinion, there is a different consideration of its meaning.

As the poem begins, the narrator is reflecting back on a time when he was taking a walk in the woods and encountered diverging paths. He’s sad that he has to make a choice. He examines both paths ultimately choosing the more aesthetically pleasing and with less obvious use. It is interesting that the poet says, “…looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth; then took the other, as just as fair” meaning he did not immediately observe the path he chose. He took the path that he hadn’t looked at first. Only after walking down that path did he see that it was beautiful and untrodden. Can you think of a time when you had a choice and you decided to take the choice you hadn’t fully investigated? It’s impulsive and could lead to a result unintended.

Looking back a Robert Frost’s life at the time this poem was written, we learn that this poem came out of a friendship Frost had begun with English poet Edward Thomas. The two often took walks in the woods together. It was Thomas’ habit of agonizing over the route they should take that lead to Frost writing this poem. Thomas often regretted the path they chose, wishing they had taken the other which he felt might have been more interesting. Frost wrote the poem as a gentle joke, though he later remarked that he “wasn’t quite sure whether [Thomas knew] I was kidding or not”.

The poem actually says that the two paths are really not that different. It is only as he looks back later in life that he imagines that he took the one less traveled by and that it was okay. What we can see here is that we often remember things differently than they actually were. In the beginning he describes the paths:

”Though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same…” And then,

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

Frost says that he might go back and take the other path, but then, maybe he won’t because life takes us away from that need or even our availability to go back. In that way, the road we took was probably okay in the end. If we consider the meaning of the poem, we can see several messages:

Life requires choices.

We cannot know what difference the alternative choice would have produced.

We construct a story about our choices in hindsight.

The title of poem is often mistitled, too. Many call it, “The Road Less Traveled”, when it is in fact titled, “The Road Not Taken”. You cannot dismiss the importance of the difference. It isn’t about the road the traveler chooses; it is about the one he did not choose. It is about all the possibilities we lose when we make the choice.

The career we did not pursue.

The relationship we did not enter.

The place we did not visit.

As you enter into a new week, what choices will you have to make? Will you choose to go to church, or to stay home? Will you call that long lost friend to reconnect, or let it go? Will you join that club you’ve been thinking about, or given in to your shyness? Everything we do in a week is comprised to choices. Whatever choices you make, commit to not looking back with regret and resolution as our poet did. You can never know what the outcome of making the other choice would be, and perhaps, there might be a good reason behind not making that choice. Just own it. The choices may come back around so that you can make a different decision in the future, but you cannot bank on that.

I hope that your decisions will be the right ones for you. I hope you will choose to follow Jesus because He will never let you down. Faith in knowing that He has your best interest at heart and that He loves you and will always love you is so fulfilling. I have seen His hand in my life, and I am convinced that there is no better way to live than under the divine protection and will of an almighty God. If you’d like to know more, DM me.

Have a great week & God bless!