Crucial moments when choices have to be made are distinct spots of time in human life. Along with this poem, Frost has written many poems in which the question of making a choice is the central point-choices that have to be made compulsorily, choices that have been made, choices that could not be made. It is like a resting point to which Frost keeps returning on and often. George Nitchie points out that the problem of choice is one of the major themes in Frost’s poetry. This inevitability, which apparently has an element of choice is brought in this oft-quoted and oft-misunderstood poem, The Road not Taken. He was inevitably guided towards his destination by some spirit, some unseen forces that keep working on man. Relating the poem to the reality of Frost’s experience, Untermeyer says that Frost has gone his own way. Nitchie points out this poem has for its theme, one of the major themes in Frost’s poetry- the problem of having to make a choice.

Here the poet takes his chance and comments on the difficulty and importance of having to make a choice. The poet’s creative faculty gets enlivened when he faces the problem of having to choose one of the two roads at a bifurcation. In the poem, we find a rare blend of ‘inner lyric vision and the outer contemplative narration’. It has been acknowledged as one of the finest and most popular poems of the volume. The Road not taken was first published in 1916, in the volume of poems entitled Mountain Interval.

A road not taken summary