Frost's "The Road Not Taken"

Robert Frost was born in California in 1874, but the death of his father caused the family to move across the country to New England when Frost was eleven. It was the time spent in New England that inspired many of Frost's poems. Frost, fascinated by New England terrain, focused on the landscape so much that he was viewed as a descendent of the American Transcendentalists. The forest is the scene of one of Frost's most famous poems, "The Road Not Taken." In "The Road Not Taken", a traveler has come to a fork in the road. While each path appears almost the same as the other, one path has been traveled upon much more than the other. The traveler realizes this is an important decision because, in stopping to analyze his choices, he understands that, although he could come back to the other path, it is doubtful that he will ever return. On looking back on this decision, the traveler understands he might make the wrong choice and will ponder the destination of the opposing path. After a brief debate the traveler decides to take the path that was less traveled. Through the use of a metaphor, Frost reveals the importance of life's significant decisions. (1878-1879)

Although the path one may take while walking in the woods may seem meaningless, Frost has used the fork in the path to represent a critical decision that must be made. The traveler has been presented with two choices: to take the path that the majority of other travelers have taken, or create his own path, that few, if any, have ventured down. At the point where the two paths diverge, the traveler pauses in thought to consider his options as depicted by:

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 is bent in the undergrowth; (Frost, 1887)

Traveling alone, the speaker has no one to influence his decision or guide him. Not knowing the outcome of either path, the traveler is torn by the decision that he is forced to make. While making this decision the traveler cannot decide if the paths are actually that different:

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same (Frost, 1887)
Because the decision is so difficult, the correct choice is not obvious. In life, people will face many tough choices. While these difficult decisions may only take a moment to be made, the results may take years to surface.

Perhaps the biggest choice one has to make in life is knowing when to quit following his or her childhood dreams. For me, this decision had to be made in the fall of 2006. As an all state baseball player in high school, I received several offers to play baseball in college, but, turning down these offers, I decided to come to Clemson. In the fall of 2006, I made a successful attempt to walk on Clemson's baseball team as a bullpen catcher. Despite being extremely happy of my accomplishment, I was forced to make a decision. I could continue to play or dedicate myself completely to academics, in an attempt to gain admittance into law school after graduation. While I could only choose one path I, like the traveler realized:

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back. (Frost, 1887)

Once I made my decision the probability of me reversing my choice was slim to none. Turning down my childhood dream of playing collegiate baseball, I chose to focus on my academic career. For three days I was a member of the nation's premier collegiate baseball teams. While these were three of the greatest days of my life, I will always wonder where continuing to play baseball would have leaded me. Having several years of school remaining I will not know the results of my decision, yet I do know that:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence (Frost, 1887)

Despite wanting to play baseball and be successful in school, only one of the two is realistic. While I made the choice to prioritize academics, I will not know the true consequences of my decision until after I graduate.

Throughout everyone's life, decisions that alter the course of their life will be made. The majority of these decisions will be difficult to make, with the only certainty being uncertainty. Whether the correct or incorrect choice is made, the choice one makes, will make all the difference.