The Road Not Taken" was first published in the August 1915 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, and later published as the first poem in the 1916 poetry collection; Mountain Interval. The meaning of this poem has been debated for over a 100 years. While each poem has its intended explanation i.e., the one the author was trying to convey, a poem can also have its own interpretation to the reader. In this case, for me it means, both roads looked the same originally, it was only in hindsight that "he" realised, he took the harder road, and because it was the harder road, this made all the difference.