Bonus points if it’s usually misused/misunderstood by the people who say it
Even after rereading the poem I had to read the Wikipedia analysis section to be convinced you are right. It’s a very subtle poem, which, honestly, just makes it better.
I always thought the confusion came from just seeing the last two lines out of context, because the poem itself has descriptions like “Then took the other, just as fair”, “Had worn them really about the same”, and “both that morning equally lay”. It seemed like Frost was really hammering home the equality, considering 15% (3/20) of the lines are talking about the similarities.
That’s the thing. Being just as fair doesn’t necessarily imply it’s equally travelled. Even being worn the same doesn’t necessarily mean equally traveled, although it strongly implies it. I think the final line is so certain that it overrides the earlier lines and implies to the unwary reader that these similar paths actually were differently travelled.
I don’t expect self contradiction in a story / poem. So that certainty of there being a difference overrides all.
It’s only after reading the author’s intentions that I know for sure that the contradiction was intended and that was actually the point of the poem.
As I said before, this makes me like the poem even more now.
