Poems are the windows into the hearts of poets. Reading a poem provides an audience
with either the satisfaction that words create a reality or that distinct adoption of words provides
a deeper connection between a poet and a reader. Either way, the purpose of literature is
achieved as audiences are informed and emancipated from mundane realities. The poem Road
Not Taken by Robert Front similarly exemplifies the realities of humans striving for betterment
in critical thinking and life choices. Moreover, the poem paves the way to analyze the events that
could have informed the poet about penning the revered piece. Themes such as the effects of
human choices, leadership skills, and self-awareness are embodied in the poem. Their ideation is
based on individual analysis of the poem. While all human choices have consequences, making
sound decisions, whether wrong or right, based on self-awareness is the ultimate stake needed to
live with consequences.
The poem by Robert Frost describes an overall sense that all choices have consequences.
The need to choose often comes with a dilemma in any mundane activity. For instance, the
persona describes, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Front line 1). In the excerpt, the
ultimate choice emanates from taking a single road. As a human being, nobody takes two roads
as it is practically impossible. However, the poem figuratively cautions readers about the effects
of their choices; whether they take the beaten path or the grassy paths in the wood, the effects
will be there. In a critical evaluation of the poem, a critic describes that the poem represents

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archetypal dilemmas that people encounter daily (Asad n.p). From the student perspective,
revising for exams to making choices about life partners, philosophies, faith, and finances,
impacts are as eminent as picking one path in the bush while knowing there will not be time left
to pick the other. Although the message of the poem concerning this theme seems ordinary,
making life decisions is the most challenging. Therefore, the great emphasis of the poem is the
continuous evaluation of choices before settling on any.
The poem makes direct leadership implications for any reader within a contextual
leadership dilemma. While leadership itself may not be theorized in the poem, its vindication is
reader applicable. Organizational managers and their employees are faced with decisions that
must be developed and implemented within short-term and long-term deadlines (Flatter 82).
Consequently, the need to make these decisions align with the cultures of the workplace,
governing the values of the people and principles that describe the overall personality of the
leaders (Flatter 82). They drive in tandem with impacts. Therefore, the poem draws external
approaches that must be unwrapped if effective decisions are required. In this case, those
decisions are always required. Analytically, the poem does not provide a certainty that taking one
road will yield the ultimate desires of the person. In the lines “I shall be telling this with a sigh/
Somewhere ages and ages hence,” (Frost 16-17), the persona gears for the impacts that
reflectively will determine whether he was right or wrong to pick the road. In this case, nobody
knows whether they have made the ultimate best choice to pick an unusual side. However, when
reviewing the events in the future, it will be clear whether the decision was the best. Therefore,
to live with the consequences of choices require ardent leadership skills.
Self-awareness helps deal with uncertainties that correspond with decisions made without
assurance of how they will manifest. Self-awareness is the ability to understand how emotions

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work on self and others. Concerning the poem, making a wrong decision hurts the emotions of a
person with a weak sense of self. When two options are available, expectations often override the
desire to make it. Similarly, there is a significant loudness in the inner voice that tells the self that
if they take a different path, the results might be more significant (Carden et al. 143). However,
determining this veracity depends on the emotions and conditions of life and the person after the
pursuits, as captured in the sixteenth line of the poem (Frost 16). Many variables affect the
decisions that lead to the last choices in a person. Their knowledge of the world, upbringing,
level of education, understanding of human philosophies, and others play significant roles in
determining self-awareness (Carden et al. 145). The poem exemplifies these facts and
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