Literal and Allegorical Meaning in Road Not Taken

Literary Analysis: “Road Not Taken”

The literal theme of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is of getting lost in the woods; the symbolic theme that many readers have associated with the poem is that striking out on one’s own is what leads one to destiny. However, as Larry Finger points out, the poem was never meant to be symbolic: Frost was rather having gentle fun with a friend of his who tended to leave the beaten path when walking in the woods only to become lost. For Frost, it was a simple, fun, literal little poem about a friend. Yet for readers it took on a significance of its own, as they saw in it a grand theme about Fate, adventure, and individuality (Finger).

The first line of the poem sets the stage: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Frost 1). The setting is obvious if taken literally: it is a path through a wood in the season of autumn—the color yellow indicating that the leaves have turned color. It is the perfect time for a stroll, for who does not like to walk during fall to see the leaves as they change color? The fact that leaves have indeed fallen, as indicated in line 12—“leaves no step had trodden black”—confirms as much.

But it is the second line of the poem that fills it with allegory for many readers: “And sorry I could not travel both” (Frost 2)—it indicates that one is at a sort of crossroads—a pivotal point in life’s grand journey, whereat one must make a decision about which way to go forward. For anyone coming of age, it is an all too familiar feeling: that sense of fate, destiny, awaiting one out there somewhere, and everything depending upon the steps that one decides to take at this very moment. Such is the symbolic reading of these lines for some readers.

Yet, a literal interpretation changes nothing of the scene or setting: the walker in the wood has come to a fork, and because he enjoys these walks he would like very much to take both paths—but one cannot walk both ways at once, so there is a sense of being torn. Which path does the narrator prefer? He likes the one that looks prettier and that has “perhaps the better claim, / Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (Frost 7-8). In other words, it is the road “less traveled”—i.e., it has not be trod upon, and so the path is not brown or beaten down, but inviting for an aesthetical perspective.

Common sense, of course, would warn one that such a path through the wood might easily get one lost, for the less tread there is the harder it is to follow it. But for the adventurous walker, as the narrator appears to be, it is this kind of path that beckons to the heart and calls to one, “Try me!” He yields to the call, and decides to save the more worn path for another day.

However, there is a tone of regret in the stanza that follows: “Oh, I kept the first for another day! / Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back” (Frost 13-15). The narrator, somewhat humorously, adds this bit of satirical foreboding to suggest to the reader the sort of mind frame he had when he indeed chose to take the second path: he as much as admits that he is going to get lost pretty quickly and perhaps never be able to return. But the narrator is mirthful and this is mere gentle joking—if one takes it literally. For Frost’s friend always returned from his walks—even if they did take extra long for precisely this reason (Finger).

But if one reads the poem with a sense of allegory and youthful idealism, this choosing of the second path takes on new meaning and serves as an image of a man striking out on his own, forging his own path, knowing that he can never return to this moment in time, this moment of his youth, this fateful moment that will decide all! And that is how many readers choose to read this poem.

But is that the correct way to read it? The fourth stanza indicates that it is not. Here, Frost explicitly provides a line that is full of playful regret: “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence” (Frost 16-17). This line is not in keeping with the allegorical reading, for there is more than a hint of humor in it—and one can see an older gentleman heaving a sigh at, once again, having been sucked into a path in the wood that he should have known better than to take because it only ends up getting him lost for what seems like ages. Obviously there is a sense of exaggeration in these words, but such exaggeration is consistent with the feeling of self-recrimination one feels when one knows one has done something silly, as the narrator quite literally has done.