The Almost Universally Misinterpreted Poem 'The Road Not Taken' and the Fascinating Story Behind It

This video is #sponsored by Brilliant.

→Subscribe for new videos every day!

Follow Simon on social media:

Never run out of things to say at the water cooler with TodayIFoundOut! Brand new videos 7 days a week!

More from TodayIFoundOut:

How Airplane Oxygen Masks Work Given They Aren't Hooked to Tanks & How Planes Get Oxygen at Altitude

Why are Anvils Shaped as They Are and Why Do Blacksmiths Tap the Anvil After a Few Strikes?

In this video:

Robert Frost is one of the most critically acclaimed American poets of the 20th century, which is a roundabout way of saying you almost certainly studied one of his poems in school. Most likely, it was a short piece called The Road Not Taken- a poem famous for being one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted poems ever written, and a testament to how twisted the meaning of something can be by taking a quote out of context. Oh, and it also played a small role in the death of the guy it was written about.

Sources:

[claressalucas]

Too bad the English teacher who gave me a C for making THIS EXACT ARGUMENT on a middle school term paper is dead or I would share this with her.

[Runeknight]

So instead of being about choosing the road less traveled, it's actually about not regretting the direction you took in life.

[SlicerJen]

So frost trolled the world accidentally while trolling his friend intentionally. Classic frost.

[theboyoofoly]

When I read this poem as a child, I interpreted it as meaning "find your own path, don't follow the herd" as an adult I reread it, and the only message I took away from it was regret...

[maniesh]

"if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there" ~George Harrison

[daniel_wilkinson]

If both roads were equally traveled before the protagonist chose, then the road not taken is definitely less traveled after the choice is made.

[jeremyheartriter.]

The problem with most English teachers is that they award more points for answering just the way they teach us and not how we understand a poem.

[allanmarks]

Alice in Wonderland -
“Cat: Where are you going?
Alice: Which way should I go?
Cat: That depends on where you are going.
Alice: I don’t know.
Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

[davidasher]

“Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run, there’s still time to change the road you’re on.. “

[sidbell]

I've always thought it was just a roundabout way of saying "The grass is always greener..."

[teresayeates]

I used to babysit a wee fellow. When taking him out in the stroller whenever we came to a corner I would ask him, which way? He would point and off we would go. Loved those random trips to wherever.

[karans.]

It's crazy how the poem was written as an internal joke between the two but however the death of Thomas added a different meaning to it, and yet it fits so perfectly well as if Frost was Master Oogway or something daaamn

[garethoneill]

It doesn't matter what path you take in life: you'll just screw things up in an entirely different way and have a completely different set of regrets.

[MurderMostFowl]

I always thought that the person in the poem was saying that he didn’t actually see any difference in the path and that he admitted that he would later pretend it was different to make it seem more special. People adding meaning to their past when it suits their own narrative.

[quarantinedcosmonaut]

"The lives we make
Never seem to ever get us anywhere but dead." -Soundgarden

[jbrisby]

I thought it was just a melancholy observation that every choice you make opens new possibilities and closes others, and nobody ever gets to know what might have been.

[nyneeveanya]

I always thought this was about someone at the end of life looking back on how their life had played out and wondering how life would be if they made different choices. Not better or worse, just different. Like if chose to be a doctor instead of a lawyer. Both could lead to good lives but different lives.

[michaelhorning]

"No matter where you go, there you are."
--Buckaroo Banzai

[josi]

I am an English teacher, and I had never known of this interpretation. Thank you, sirs, for this enlightenment. And folks out there, never stop learning! There's always something we can be learning and seeing.

[AccidentalNinja]

"Hey friend, I wrote this poem mocking you, would you like to read it?"