In "The Road not Taken," how does the speaker feel about the decision to choose the one road over the other?

The speaker in Robert Frost's poem “The Road Not Taken” seems to simultaneously feel a sense of melancholy as well as a sense of excitement concerning the decision to choose the road that “wanted wear” over the road that showed more obvious signs of use. We see in the speaker a person who is acknowledging that the passage of time likely precludes the exploration of both ways, but who still feels that making the right choice will make a great difference in the speaker’s life.

The speaker is melancholic because of the necessity of the choice, as well as the ramifications thereof. The speaker is drawn toward the seemingly less traveled road, but the speaker is also hesitant to leave the first road, as both offer the opportunity for discovery. The speaker states that the speaker “kept the first for another day,” but then admits that it is doubtful that the speaker will ever “come back” to that divergence of roads because of “how way leads on to way.” The speaker is telling us that despite the desire being there to explore both paths, the speaker knows the choice made that day will likely preclude ever returning to take the one not chosen. The finality of the choice, and the loss of the possibilities that the first road may hold, leads the speaker to feel melancholic.

However, the melancholy the speakers feels regarding the loss of some possibilities is balanced by the excitement the speaker feels in choosing the less traveled way. This feeling may be more difficult for some reader to recognize, but we can see it in the description of the second road:

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Here, the speaker is showing the reader the appeal of the second road, that it was grassy and wanted wear. This seems to indicate that the speaker is excited about the choice to not go the obviously well traveled way. This sense is strengthened by the speaker’s final assertion that:

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Although the speaker is melancholic that the choice of one road likely means that the speaker will never explore the other, the speaker is also happy about the choice made and the possibilities it will offer.