Poem:
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 took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Explanation and interpretation:
1. One possible interpretation of this poem can be summarized by Keating's quote from "Dead Poet Society" (movie) :
"We all are driven by conformity; difficulty in maintaining our own belief. We all have great need for acceptance, but you must trust that your belief are unique, even though others may think they are odd or unpopular."
2. The Road Not Taken seems to illustrate that once one takes a certain road, there's no turning back, although one might change paths later on, they still can't change the past.
