7. On “The Road Not Taken”
| TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, | |
| 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 it bent in the undergrowth; | |
| Then took the other, as just as fair, | |
| And having perhaps the better claim, | |
| Because it was grassy and wanted wear; | |
| 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. | |
| Oh, I kept the first for another day! | |
| Yet knowing how way leads on to way, | |
| I doubted if I should ever come back. | |
| 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. | |
Some of my students want to read this poem as if it is titled "The Road Less Traveled By," and interpret it as a poem mainly about choices, emphasizing especially the last line as an expression of triumph. They see it as a call to non-conformity, and misread the poem as a call to the reader to take roads that are less traveled.
But it seemt to me that such an interpretation ignores the "sigh" in line 16—the one we should make when we read the "—" in line 18. It also ignores an even better interpretation of the whole poem, one that suggests the poem is more about the stories we tell about ourselves than it is about the choices we make.
The poem contains two versions of the same event. The first version takes up the first three stanzas; it is the story the speaker tells of the event (probably) shortly after it happened. Of note, in this version of the story, the speaker goes to some lengths to make it clear the two roads are "really about the same." Both haven't been walked upon that much, for that morning they "equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black" (11-12). The second version of the story takes of the last stanza, and is told "ages and ages hence." In it, the speaker has revised the story and states (attempts to convince himself?) that he took "the one less traveled by" (19).
Time has a way of changing the stories we tell about ourselves. Perhaps our memories are self-serving, and we tell the story about ourselves that we want to believe. But if we're self-aware, we'll make note of that "sigh" we make when we tell that version of the story, ages and ages hence.
And maybe be a little more human.