![]() Once again at the end of the poem the regret hangs over the traveler like a heavy cloud about to burst. Once you have performed an act or spoken a word that crystallizes who you are, there is no turning back and it cannot be undone. "I kept the first for another day!" The desire to travel down both paths is expressed and is not unusual, but "knowing how way leads on to way", the speaker of this poem realizes that the decision is not just a temporary one and he "doubted if I should ever come back." This is his common sense speaking and acknowledging that what he chooses now will affect every other choice he makes afterward. Perhaps Frost does this because each time a person comes to the point where they have to make a choice, it is new to them, somewhere they have never been and they tend to feel as though no one else had ever been there either. "And both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black." The leaves had covered the ground and since the time they had fallen no one had yet to pass by on this road. The fact that the traveler took this path over the more popular, secure one indicates the type of personality he has, one that does not want to necessarily follow the crowd but do more of what has never been done, what is new and different. ![]() "Then took the other, just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim." What made it have the better claim is that "it was grassland wanted wear." It was something that was obviously not for everyone because it seemed that the majority of people took the other path therefore he calls it "the road less traveled by". It is the way that he chooses here that sets him off on his journey and decides where he is going. As much he may strain his eyes to see as far the road stretches, eventually it surpasses his vision and he can never see where it is going to lead. The road that will be chosen leads to the unknown, as does any choice in life. In an attempt to make a decision, the traveler "looks down one as far as I could". There is a strong sense of regret before the choice is even made and it lies in the knowledge that in one lifetime, it is impossible to travel down every path. Difficult to make a decision because it is impossible not to wonder about the opportunity cost, what will be missed out on.
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