Robert Frost's “The Road Not Taken” is one of the most anthologized, widely read, loved, and analyzed poems in the American canon. A short poem consisting of four stanzas of five lines each composed of simple, direct language constructed overwhelmingly from words of two syllables or less, the poem clearly did not achieve its high status as a result of experimentation with elements of the form such as the pattern of rhyme, meter or even the use of unusually figurative images. Indeed, “The Road Not Taken” stands out from most other poems held in equal academic esteem precisely because a reader need not be a graduate college student – ​​or even a high school graduate – to understand any of the individual words or words . arrive at a questionable interpretation of the meaning. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The simplicity of “The Road Not Taken” is what allows the ultimately ambiguous ending to transform the poem into one with a meaning so universally recognized that it is equally suited to hanging on a farmhouse kitchen wall. Iowa and to be analyzed by English graduates in the libraries of the world's most esteemed universities. Frost gives each stanza its own individual consideration of the titular concept of the choices one makes in life and how each choice one makes also takes into account the potential of at least one alternative choice that was not made. The first verse is not only about reaching a fork in the road in life, but is also specifically about how the choices we make must so often be made with the undergrowth of the unknown that prevents us from fully seeing future consequences . the second stanza offers a hint of the ambiguity that closes the poem and always seems to be the one that has led so many readers to misinterpret the poem with its misunderstood title "The Road Less Traveled." Frost purposely aims to convince the reader that the speaker is filled with the spirit of Yankee individualism and nonconformity, appearing ready to make the quick decision to take the road less traveled. By the end of the verse, however, he not only seems to have retreated from that rebellious impulse, but now even seems to waver as to which path is actually the one less traveled. The third stanza would seem to confirm that the common interpretation of the poem as if it were indeed “The Road Less Traveled” would be very simplistic indeed. In the space of a few moments Frost offers us an eternity of possibilities that have little or nothing to do with the vaunted reading of poetry as a tour de force of nonconformist thought. What may initially seem like a decision based entirely on a rebellious attitude in joining the crowd quickly becomes an abject lesson in rationalization: He can always go back and try that other path later, which is more typical of someone hedging their bets. that the sign of a rugged individualist. But then, just when such a rejection of the speaker's commitment seems entirely justified, such rationalization for choosing one path over the other is abandoned to the rapid realization and even quicker acceptance that such an opportunity to try to taking routes along two diverging roads is so rare. as if they didn't exist. The last five lines directly reflect the imagery of the first stanza in which the undergrowth serves as a metaphor for the hindered vision of the future that lies within every choice we have made. The poem ends with the speaker comfortably situated in that cloudy future, not.