The Lie Poets Believe

Are you ready to become educated poets? Because this absolutely blew my mind. Many know the poem by Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken.

If not, read it (please):

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.

---

With a quick read through, it  appears the narrator in this poem is saying that he took the less traveled path, therefore making the theme about taking the harder path in life…however, that’s not true!!!

If you read closely, you may find yourself a bit confused.

First, the narrator says “[I] took the other as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim” (which means that road is less traveled), but then he says “though as for that passing there had worn them really about the same” and “and both that morning equally lay, in leaves no step had trodden black”. These quotes mean that both paths were equally worn down, if not untouched, as the leaves had not been trodden upon.

The key line here is “And looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth”.

The narrator looked down the first path and immediately took the second path? Why?…Because he was a coward!!!

The first path was not as clear and reliable as the second, so he took the easier path!!! He was rationalizing and trying to say he took the second path because he was being brave.

Therefore, the real theme of this poem is that it doesn’t matter what path you take! Robert Frost is a fatalist and believes that we do not make our own decisions according to our free will: a higher power (fate) rules over us.