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

To make my case, I will attempt a line-by-line analysis.Line 1:This sets the theme for the rest of the poem. Depending on what you think this means, the poem can have entirely different meanings from person to person. Most, if not all people who read this poem interpret this line to be a metaphor for life choices and experiences. Each road is a different option or approach to an experience or a problem.Lines 2-3:The speaker is sorry that he can't experience both "roads", because he is only one traveler. This regret is gone by the end of the poem.Lines 4-8:The speaker looked at the pros and cons of both choices, and decided that it would better himself in the long run by taking the path that "wanted wear". This implies that the path was more difficult or a harder choice to make, which explains why the path didn't have many travelers.Lines 9-10:It appears that the speakers "steps" down this "road" made it look very similar to the other road in terms of wear. This is the turning point in the poem, where the speaker realizes that it doesn't actually matter which path he took. The path he was on wasn't more difficult, it just wasn't used in a while.Lines 11-12:By morning, all traces of the speaker's journey down this road are gone. There is no evidence of wear, and the path looks exactly like it did when the speaker first came across it.Lines 13-15:The speaker decided to continue down his path, because he knows that it will lead to the same outcome no matter what. Both of the paths are completely equal, so the speaker doubts that he will come back because the challenge that he thought he faced in the beginning was simply an illusion.Lines 16-17:This last part of the poem is a story that the speaker will tell sometime in the future "with a sigh". Why is he sighing when he recants this story?Lines 18-20:This part of the poem most commonly misinterpreted as the "positive message". Given two paths, one easy, and one difficult, it's true that they will both lead to the same conclusion, but the difficult path will provide a challenge that betters yourself as a person, and the same cannot be said about the easy path. This seems like a positive message, right? Well, with Lines 16-17 in mind, it doesn't look like the speaker recanting this as a genuine story. Keep in mind that these last lines are being told "with a sigh".Summary:The beginning of the poem poses a dilemma for the speaker: take the more trodden path, or the path that showed no signs of wear. At the time, the speaker doesn't know anything about these paths except that people seem to prefer one path over the other. The speaker then incorrectly assumes that this must mean one path is more difficult than the other. It is only after journeying down this path that the speaker realizes that both paths are exactly the same. This is demonstrated by the speaker saying that by morning, the weather (or something else) had completely erased all evidence that the speaker had even traveled down that path in the first place. After realizing this, the speaker keeps going, because there is no point in turning back.When the speaker recants this story (perhaps to his children or his grandchildren), he is doing so with a sigh. He is appealing to a false sense of adventure by telling his story like it was actually some sort of challenge, when clearly, it was not. It's unclear whether or not he's simply lying or being sarcastic, but it is clear that he doesn't mean anything he says in lines 18-20.Conclusion:This poem isn't sending a positive message, it is in fact criticizing society and the people who erroneously think that not following the crowd will somehow benefit you as a person. Although it's true that there are some challenges in life that grant you benefits as apposed to taking the easy way out, it is my interpretation that the author feels like too many minor dilemmas are being given that description.For this reason, I negate the idea that "The Road Not Taken" sends a positive message.