[Julie Steiner]

After thinking about it for way, way too long, I'll concede that "contradictory" was the wrong word.

I'm not sure "complementary" is the right word, though. That suggests that a poem's various possible meanings are working in harmony, and I don't think they always do. Sometimes they just co-exist independently.

Can I meet you in the middle on the (rather pedestrian) word "different," Sam?

[R. S. Gwynn]

Different or multiple seems fine. It's easy enough to see why the Frost poem has been misread. All of our lives we're told not to follow the crowd, to think for ourselves, so this one seems to be offering comforting advice.

[Ann Drysdale]

Divergent?

[Julie Steiner]

LOL! Le mot juste.