Robert Frost's poetry is characterised by his ability to turn mundane objects into larger, more important subjects. He achieves this by his use of imagery and poetic interpretation. He turns his poem "The Road Not Taken" from a simple poem about someone choosing a path to follow, into a deep and meaningful poem about the choices we all must make in our life.
The Road Not Taken has many levels of meaning. It has many extended metaphors throughout the whole poem. One of these metaphors is the choice of road to take being the choices in life we all must make. In the poem Frost says "and that has made all the difference". Obviously, he is saying the choices we make do have impacts on our lives. The line "two roads diverged" means this is the point where our lives are changing. "Bent in the undergrowth" shows us he cannot see where his decision will lead, the future is always unclear. .
His poems are often complex and take quite a while to find the real meaning. "Wanted wear" is a very good example of this. When Frost says "wanted wear" he really means the path needed the wear. The notion that this path could be different from the other made him think, and take that path. He then goes on and says "wore them about the same". This shows that the path he took to be different, and his different choice was really about the same as the more used path after he had taken it.
The well travelled by road is usually taken by most people. It is more safe and predictable then the less travelled by path. It is taken more often for those reasons. You know what is going to happen, you know where you will end up, even if you cannot see how you will get there. .
"I doubted if I should ever come back" shows us that we must live with the path we take, the decisions we make and we cannot go back and change them. "I shall be telling this with a sigh", this phrase is very ambiguous. We do not know if he means he is sighing as he has made the correct choice, or if he has made one he regrets.
