Luyan Louise Li

Like many of Robert Frost's poetry, "The Road Not Taken" takes on an appearance of being just a simple narration, however, as Ciardi wrote, " It is almost safe to say that a poem is never about what it seems to be about." This poem is often misunderstood, for its simplicity in choice of language and structure, leads a careless reader to come to a conclusion that this poem really means what it says. Frost intended it this way, as he once said, " I write in parables so that the wrong people won't understand and be saved." Frost uses a narrative that is seemingly straightforward as a disguise for a deeper tutorial to those who are worth teaching.

So what is this deeper meaning? And more importantly, how does Frost mean it? For the sake of...