Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" is about a traveler faced with a choice. Although the choice appears to be about which road to take, the meaning is much deeper. Frost distinguishes between fate's control over one's life and the lack of influence one truly has on his own decisions. The traveler wants to make a choice but the road is ultimately chosen for him. Through the traveler, his actions, his thoughts, and diction, Frost delineates the difference between fate and free will.
             The narrator begins the poem by describing his surroundings, "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood," (Line 1). This line is a metaphor in which the woods represent life. This image helps the reader to have a better understanding of the complexity of the problem the speaker is facing. When standing at the edge of woods, one cannot clearly see what is ahead, due to the trees other undergrowth blocking the view. Life is like those woods because no one can clearly see or predict what will happen in the future, only hope to choose a path that will lead to good fortune and happiness. Frost returns to this metaphor at the end of the first stanza.
             Frost's use of word choice to prove his point is evident in this first line. The wood is described as yellow. The word yellow is often associated with cowardice and fear. The narrator is not necessarily scared but apprehensive about the decision with which he is faced. This feeling is simple human nature. He knows that a wrong decision will ruin the rest of his life. The word yellow, however, has a double meaning in this poem. When used to describe the wood, yellow gives the reader a feeling that this occurs in the autumn. In one's life, autumn is considered closer to the end; a time just passed middle age but not quite elderly. Yellow here describes the narrator's age as well as the color of the wood. Also worth noticing is the use of the wo...