Choice

The labyrinth is a symbol of the difficulty of making decisions. A labyrinth, like other mazes, appears to present many different choices. However, in a labyrinth, there can only be one correct choice. Every other way one can turn is wrong, and leads to a dead end or to further danger.

This is the conundrum that the speaker finds herself faced with. She is looking for “the way” to her goal, indicating that she is aware that there is a single correct option (2). Yet she is also conscious that “ways are on all sides”—that there are many different paths she could choose, all but one of them doomed to lead her astray (2).

The poem addresses each of the choices that the speaker sees available to her, and ultimately dismisses each. She could turn to the right, where she worries she would “burn” in love – presumably...