Comment by bjornsing

Not sure this is such a novel or unique take. I’ve always liked the poem and it has always had this undercurrent for me.

It’s captured well in this paragraf from the poem’s Wikipedia page:

“Frost spent the years 1912 to 1915 in England, where among his acquaintances was the writer Edward Thomas. Thomas and Frost became close friends and took many walks together. One day, as they were walking together, they came across two roads. Thomas was indecisive about which road to take, and in retrospect often lamented that they should have taken the other one. After Frost returned to New Hampshire in 1915, he sent Thomas an advance copy of "The Road Not Taken". Thomas took the poem seriously and personally, and it may have been significant in his decision to enlist in World War I. Thomas was killed two years later in the Battle of Arras.”

EDIT: Also, I don’t really see a contradiction here. It’s very possible to value non-conformism while acknowledging that it’s hard and not always beneficial to go your own way (as is made clear in the example above).