“Robert Frost was one of the United States' best-loved poets. Frost was
greatly influenced by his move from San Francisco to New England at the age of
11, his move to England when he was 37, and then his return to New Hampshire a
couple of years later” (Knowledge Adventure 2). Robert Frost’s inspiration
for his poetry came from within himself. His decisions concerning which
direction his life would take can be seen in one of his most acclaimed poems “
The Road Not Taken”. Ultimately he realized, as is expressed in his works,
that the road one chooses to take is what builds and defines one’s character.
It is a life-long decision that one cannot change further down the great road of
life. The first two lines of his poem is “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
and sorry I could not travel both” (Frost 815). In the first two lines, Robert
is standing at the crossroads in life; he wishes that he could go both ways, but
in life, you must choose one. He looked down both roads as far as he could see.
He wanted to see where the roads led to. One of the roads was well-traveled (the
common road that most people take in life), and the other road looked as though
no one liked to travel it. Frost took the one that wasn’t traveled as much;
choosing his own path in life versus the mainstream (Knowledge Adventure). This
is a remarkable move by Frost, because he could be an average poet with an easy
life, however he chooses the harder road through life. Lines eleven through
fourteen state, “And both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had
trodden black. 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 816). These lines
suggest that he had to choose one morning, of which direction he should lead his
life. That morning, his decisions were tough; both of the roads had no
footprints, as leading people to believe that no one had traveled the road
before. Frost wishes that he could take both paths in life, but one knows that
the first path leads to another and then to another; life is always moving
forward. He knows that he would never get to go back in life and take the road
he left behind, and this is why he chooses the less traveled road. He sees where
most people are at in life and that they probably followed the mainstream and
took the easy road. This is where he decides that he wants to better himself,
and not follow the norm. This is why he took the harder of the two roads. The
last five lines of the poem are very significant. Frost writes, “I shall be
telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a
wood, and I--I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the
difference” (Frost 816). Frost says that he will be telling this story in the
future. The lines also offer the proof that Frost is very sat¬ isfied with the
road or the choice in life that he has made. The last two lines, however sting.
The majority of the people in life took the easy road, and in those last lines
he directly states that he only prospered well and made a life for himself
because he took the harder road, or the rougher choice, and that choice has
brought him to where he is today. So in retrospect, when one looks back on
his/her life, the road less traveled is actually the road best traveled. You
enjoy life more if you take chances and not always follow the mainstream. From
the beginning of the poem, Frost knew what road he would take; but everyone is
drawn to the easy road. He had a tough struggle deciding which one he wanted to
take: road number one--easy life versus road number two--tougher life, but no
idea where it leads. It wasn’t hard for him to decide which road he wanted to
take, so he followed his instincts, and his choices in life is what brought him
worldwide recognition.