Robert Frost published "The Road Not Taken" in 1916 in his collection "Mountain Interval." The last line can be interpreted both literally and ironically.
1. Literal meaning: "And that has made all the difference" emphatically states that the 'choice' one has made is important and not the opportunites that one has sacrificed. Thus the whole poem can be understood as a glorification of individualism. The traveller is a non-conformist who claims that he has done the right thing by "taking the road less traveled by." Thus, the poem inspires and encourages its readers to be unconventional.
2. Irony: The traveler regrets that he has made the wrong choice by "taking the road less traveled by." In the 2nd and 3rd stanza the poet admits that both the paths are equally worn and are equally leafy covered: "just as fair" and "equally lay in leaves." Hence, actually the choice has made no difference at all even though the speaker might confidently state otherwise.
The poem is deliberately ambiguous because when a person arrives at a fork in a road he becomes confused at the ambiguous choices in front of him. We come across many forks in the road of our journey called life and we are faced with tough choices which either challenge us to do something different or confuse and demoralise us.
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