The inspiration for the poem, “The Road Not Taken”, came from Frost’s amusement over a familiar characteristic of his closest friend in England, Edward Thomas. While living in Gloucestershire in 1914, Frost frequently took long walks with Thomas through the countryside. time after time Thomas would choose a route which might enable him to show his American friend a rare plant or a special scene; but it often happened that before the end of such a walk Thomas would regret the choice he had made and would sigh over what he might have shown Frost if they had taken a "better" direction. More than once, on such occasions, the New Englander had teased his Welsh-English friend for those wasted regrets and Frost found something quaintly romantic in sighing over what might have been. Such a course of action was a road never taken by Frost, a road he had been taught to avoid. In a reminiscent mood, not very long after his return to America as a successful, newly discovered poet, Frost pretended to "carry himself" in the manner of Edward Thomas just long enough to write "The Road Not Taken".
Figuratively, "The Road Not Taken" is applied to a person's life. The traveler is a person who has two choices, which ar
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