Why the Tears?

Why does this poem always make me cry?

You know the one:

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

 Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Last week my oldest three kids started memorizing poetry. I decided that I would join them, and I chose this one, an old fave. On the first day of school I read all the poems out loud and I couldn't get through mine without crying. I tried a few times and it actually became funny. At dinner, with Kevin joining the audience I tried again and I cried again! The line "knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back" is the tear-jerker, along with "I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

I know that we can't do everything in this life - we can't choose more than one path. This bugs me, and I guess that explains the tears. I've often said I'd like to try everything at least once, but I don't have the time, true desire, or aptitude for all the paths that sound fun to me. I'm a dreamer, but I'm also finite. I guess that explains the sigh in the last stanza. And also my own tears.