Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" sends a positive message

Where is the site of meaning in a poem?The answer to the above question has been the subject of much debate in literary studies: is the meaning of a text located in the author's intention or in the reader's experience?In Round 1, my opponent stated the following "precondition" for taking this debate: "Because there are no authorities for literature, do not use an outside source to defend your argument." My opponent has therefore conceded, as a precondition for taking this debate, that there are no authorities in the study and interpretation of literary works.That said, conceded may be too weak a word to describe my opponent's statement, as it was my opponent who made the precondition a precondition in the first place. By agreeding to the precondition, I was forced by my opponent to not use external sources to support my argument. On the other hand, my opponent unwittingly agreed thatthere are no authoritiesin the interpretation of Robert Frost's poem, "The Road not Taken." What does it mean to say there are no authorities concerning literature? For one, it provides a clear determination of the site of meaning in a literary text: the reader's experience. As such, the meaning of a poem can be understood to reside in the reader, and therefore, the meaning of any poem will be multifarious, each text having as many meanings as it has readers.So when my opponent claims that Robert Frost's poem does not send a positive message, my opponent has implicily accepted (by his own terms) an extraordinarly difficult burden -- my opponent must argue that the poem cannot send a positive message to any reader. For if a single reasonable reader believes, as a result of their reading-experience, that the poem sends a positive message, then my opponent has failed to fulfill his burden. At once, readers of this debate may note that the poem can send a positive message because, as exemplified by the experience of many readers of the poem (including myself), the poem has provided a positive message for many of its readers.How does the poem send a positive message?Note: the fact that I examine my opponent's argument in more detail does not take away from the fact that, even if readers disagree with my reading of the poem, my opponent has already conceded that there are no authorities on literature, and therefore, that my reading is just as legitimate as anyone else's reading. My response to the poem was positive. My opponent argues that the poem does not send a positive message because the last few lines are either a lie or sarcastic. To support his case, my opponent drects the reader's attention to the "sigh" in the last stanza. My only question is: how does this imply that the entire poem, in its reflection on the meaning of life, and the different roads one may take, is somehow negative? Sighs are just as often related to good things as they are to bad things; for example, people sigh when they are in love, people sigh when they recount memories that are dear to them, when they look back on times with nostalgia. Sighs, in relation to memories, are almost always a good thing.Consider what the poem is about: it is a reflection on the meaning of the choices we make in life. The poem concludes that, regardless of which choice we make, the choice itself was meaningful. The speaker notices that it is not the path or the conclusion that matters, but the choice. The choices we make have "all the difference," regardless of what happens afterwards.The poem is a statement of the meaning inherent in making choices. This is a positive message, as it is attempts to locate meaning in a world plagued by ambiguity, uncertainty, and in the end, powerlessness. In the light of these factors, these aspects of the human condition, the poet nonetheless attempts to find some meaning, some "difference." And it is the search for meaning itself, exemplified by the poet's desire for a "difference" (even if he is lying, the fact he lies is evidence of desire for meaning).