How Peculiar, are the Nature of Choices

Have you ever made a choice you regret? Held two stones up to the light and compared the way light dances on their surface, only to pocket the one less brilliant?

In "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost, we see the story of a speaker, walking in a yellow wood, who must choose between two paths when arriving at a fork in the road. The speaker chooses one, expecting to come back another day to the other, but realizes that "way leads on to way", and that more choices and forks will arise, she won't be coming back. Later, she will embellish the story of the paths in the woods and tell others that she 'chose the one less traveled by' , although both paths had looked similarly well trod at the time.
As she reflects she 'sighs', signaling the regret she feels for her choice. As the saying goes 'the grass is always greener on the other side', and the speaker desires the possibilities of the 'other path'.

Why is it that a choice between two similar roads would make such a big difference many years later? Although the two paths were worn 'about the same', they take you in different directions. Either choice you make, you will end up in a different location than if you had taken the other. As time passes, you come to more forks in the paths, are confronted with more choices. Each choice you makes, multiply's the force of the one you made before it. Years later, you have gone so far from the original diversion in the yellow wood, you can only wonder where choice 2 could have taken you.

As readers (and hard working AP students!) we are confronted with a diverged path as well: how we choose to interpret the text. One way you could consider the poem is a young woman's choice to have an abortion...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

Yellow is the color of cowardice. A young woman pregnat looks at the two 'paths' diverging before her, and fears where either would take her. One, an abortion- destruction of a life. The other, birth- a heavy responsibility, a harder life.

And sorry I could not travel both,
And be one traveler, long I stood

She is sorry that she can't both save the life of a child, and maintain her same lifestyle.

And looked down one as far as I could
To where is bent in the undergrowth;

As she looks down the path of birth, what does she see? Well to a young woman, the path looks bent and dark, like the path in the undergrowth. It would take her away from the life she has now, bring more responsibility and work. Perhaps it would cause negative responses from her peers and society, bringing shame and embarrassment.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim,

So, she chooses the abortion, which doesn't seem so unnormal or wrong. In fact, it may even be better for the child, than to be brought up in a household unfit for raising it.

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Grass is green, the color of life. The choice of abortion would seem to preserve her way of life, and is what seems encouraged by society.

Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

But although she can tell herself all these things about either choice she makes, she sees that there will be regrets either way.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.

And she see how had either choice might benefit her, the joys of raising a child.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to ways,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

She thought she could save birth for later in life, but sees as the path she has chose leads to new things and further from motherhood; she doubts it is ever a choice she will return to.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Sigh, a signal of regret.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.