In his poem "The Road Not Taken" Robert Frost uses a theme about how the choices one makes affects their entire life. When we come to a fork in the road of life, a decision needs to be made. Similarly, Blanche Farley also discusses choices in her literary work, "The Lover Not Taken". Her work however addresses the decision of choosing a lover to travel with along the path of life. Everyone is a traveler choosing a road to follow on their continuous, irrevocable, journey of life, and there is never a straight path that leaves one with a sole direction in which to head.
             Frost first confronts the tough decision of choosing a path. He says: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both" (1-2). Frost displays a strong sense of regret before the choice is made, and it lies in the knowledge that he cannot travel both paths. He must choose one or the other. "The choices a person makes in life are ultimately responsible for their future, yet at the same time a person can never go back to the past and experience other possibilities" (Goodsen, Kroemer, Michalowski, par. 6). Likewise Farley is weighing the opportunity cost between two lovers. "Committed to one, she wanted both And, mulling it over, long she stood" (1-2). It is often difficult to make a decision because of the thought of what will be lost as compared with what will be gained. In life and lovers alike, there are opportunities that are forgone for every decision that is made.
             Next, Frost presents the dilemma of trying to choose the better path by trying to foresee what they will bring in the future. The first of the two paths is the more common route than the other less traveled path, which "Wanted wear" (8). Frost presents a classic conflict: the decision between the common, easy path and the exceptional challenging path. Farley expresses a similar predicament when she is try...