"The Road not Taken" by Robert Frost (poetry reading)

This is an ambiguous poem. At first glance it seems that he's saying he made the right choice. If so, why would he be telling it with a sigh? Frost himself said it was "tricky".

Here's Robert himself reading it:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15717

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• not
• taken
• less
• traveled
• two
• roads
• diverged
• Robert
• Frost
• poem
• poetry
• reading

[SofieIsRainbows]

i have to memorize this for an audition. bleh.

[SpokenVerse]

@SofieIsRainbows I hope it leads to a great career, all the best, Tom

[reybuono1]

The poem is not about choice. It's about how we remember choice -- how we ascribe importance to past events that were not all that significant at the time. It's also a satire. The voice that shall be "telling this with a sigh" is pretentious and a bit sententious. Frost is ironically looking ahead to his future when he will be describing this this choice as if he knew what it meant. The key is the dash before the two "I"s in the third stanza. The poem has been abused by so many English teachers.

[elenamazin]

@ebbandjaro lol im memorizing it too, im in 9th grade

[papaclanc]

I think he tells it "with a sigh" because it rhymes with "I" and "by."

Duh.

[curlyheadedbecca]

@ebbandjaro im in 8th grade toooo!!!! and have to memorize it :/

[fashion30mb]

I don't think that he's talking about the sigh as an expression of regret for a life wasted, but as a nostalgic look at his youth remembering his choices and wondering how things would have turned out if he had made a different choice which has nothing to do with a feeling of regret of the choice that he made.

[ebbandjaro]

@Makjonesy haha i have to memorize it too, im in 8th grade

[Makjonesy]

I have to memorize this poem by Halloween for school! It was either this, how do I love thee, 2 shake spree ones, or funeral blues! This was my fav. I only have a little memorized!

2 roads diverged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not b on traveler long I stood? Idk if that's right :) lol

I'm in 7th grade :D

[iLurvePugs]

@MrsMoonshine8 Autumn leaves

[MrsMoonshine8]

Oh, I also wonder why Frost opted for a 'yellow wood' (the colour). Does anybody know? Maybe mainly because of the association with the sun at its earliest stages in the day. Not quite the dawn of life, not quite the middle of it. Suggestions?