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"Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood."
~ T.S. Eliot
"Poetry helps us understand what happens in our lives."
~ Ann Darr
"Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of knowledge."
~ William Wordsworth
"Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings."
~ W.H. Auden
"A poem begins with delight and ends in wisdom."
~ Robert Frost |
Let's take a look at Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”:
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 wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Ironically, despite being one of the most widely read poems in America, people frequently misunderstand it. Many people believe it is a triumphant call to march to the beat of your own drum; apparently, Frost actually wrote it as a gentle, teasing satire about human indecision and our habit of inventing meaning for arbitrary choices. The poem was a joke for a friend, fellow poet Edward Thomas. When they walked together, Thomas was chronically indecisive about which road to take and, in retrospect, often lamented that they should have taken the other one. Soon after writing the poem in 1915, Frost complained to Thomas that he had read the poem to an audience of college students and that it had been “taken pretty seriously” despite doing his best to make it obvious that he was fooling around.
Despite the author’s intentions, readers still find deep meaning in this poem, including me. Frost tells us himself that he will choose the road that is less worn. However, in the second stanza, he notes both paths were actually worn “really about the same.” He knows that once he commits to a path, he likely won’t ever get the chance to come back and see where the other road leads. Life forces us to make decisions without knowing the outcome, often relying on impulse rather than logic.
Is that “sigh” in the final stanza one of regret and rationalization? Perhaps it represents our habit of looking back on our lives, realizing our decisions were just coin-toss choices, and fabricating a narrative to make our life story feel like a triumphant, intentional journey.
So, what are your thoughts on this poem? |
| | | The Robot (E) What differentiates me from a machine? A muscle I rarely flex. |
| | | Strength Renewed (E) Isaiah 40:29-31 shows the importance of strength renewed by the Lord, not by the self. |
| | Isolation Map (18+) Forgotten, rediscovered, and the realization that it was for the best. |
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Poetry: June 10, 2026 Issue [#13776]
