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To me, if one wants to fully appreciate the poetry of Robert Frost, one needs to understand his biographical background which you can find here. Many actually think that “The Road Not Taken” explores the whole question of choices in life and bearing the burden of that choice.
Honestly, this is possibly among the best-known, most-often-misunderstood poems on the planet. Several generations of careless readers have turned it into a piece of Hallmark happy-graduation-son, carpe diem nonsense. I always tell my students that because this poem is cursed with a wonderful combination of form and content, interesting phrases using simple words, and resonant metaphor, it seems as if “The Road Not Taken” can be memorized without really being read properly to understand its meaning as intended by Frost and with that, it has sadly achieved ‘trivial’ immortality because many do not grasp the true meaning of this poem!
There are actually two meanings that we can explore:
* the literal meaning which is inspirational and individualist in nature (the commonly accepted one) and Wikipedia regards it as a paean to individualism
OR
* the ironic meaning which is the one that I believe in because it is through this poem that Frost boldly explores the whole issue of conscious irony.
Technically, “The Road Not Taken” consists of four stanzas of five lines with an ABAAB rhyme scheme that is strict and masculine, with the notable exception of the last line (we do not usually stress the -ence of difference). There are four stressed syllables per line, varying on an iambic tetrameter base.
Let’s take a look at the poem.
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 wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Many scholars have confirmed that Frost claims that he wrote this poem about his friend Edward Thomas, with whom he had walked many times in the woods near London. Frost said that while walking they would come to different paths and after choosing one, Thomas would always fret wondering what they might have missed by not taking the other path. And Frost is supposed to have warned his friends that this is a ‘tricky poem - very tricky’. And of course he is correct.
And why so?
For far too long, this poem has been used as an inspirational poem in that to the undiscerning eye, Frost seems to be encouraging self-reliance, and non-conformism which is the refusal to conform to common standards, conventions, rules, customs, traditions, norms, or laws.
If you were to look at the poem’s last lines, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference, it can be seen as a declaration of the importance of independence and personal freedom implying that once one takes a certain road, there is no turning back. Although one might change paths later on, the past cannot be changed. It can be seen as showing that choice is very important, and is a thing to be considered.
If you were to believe this interpretation, then you may appreciate how and why many misremember the title as “The Road Less Traveled”, since it places emphasis on the choice made, not the opportunities foregone.
Personally, I argue that closer reading of the poem shows that Frost is not moralizing about choice but warning us that choice is inevitable and that we will never know what is our choice until we have lived it out in our lives. This is so true in the recent encounter that I had. Thus to me, “The Road Not Taken” is a symbolic poem of the complications people must face in the course of their lives.
To have a better understanding of what I am talking about, consider this:
Though his work is principally associated with the life and landscape of New England, and though he was a poet of traditional verse forms and metrics who remained steadfastly aloof from the poetic movements and fashions of his time, Frost is anything but a merely regional or minor poet. The author of searching and often dark meditations on universal themes, he is a quintessentially modern poet in his adherence to language as it is actually spoken, in the psychological complexity of his portraits, and in the degree to which his work is infused with layers of ambiguity and irony.
(extracted from here)
I am strongly for the idea that Frost intends to infuse into this poem, the whole theme of regret and personal myth-making and the follies of rationalizing our decisions.
The second verse shows us clearly that neither of the roads is less traveled by. So if you were to look at it carefully, we cannot justifiably ignore the meanings they send through the easy aphorisms of the last two stanzas!!
You see, I firmly believe that the timelessness of this my favorite poem lies in its archetypal dilemma - and it is one that we instantly recognize because each of us encounters it innumerable times, both literally and figuratively. Frost uses paths in the woods and forks in roads - both of which are ancient and deep-seated metaphors for the lifeline, its crises and decisions. Identical forks, in particular, symbolize for us the nexus of free will and fate: Yes, we are free to choose, but we do not really know beforehand what we are choosing between. Our route is, thus, determined by an accretion of choice and chance, and it is impossible to separate the two.And that is the most difficult situation.
Many do not realize that Frost does not give step by step instructions as to how to choose. They think he does in the way each verse talks about different stages of the decision making. But I beg to differ!!!
I would say that we must realize that Frost’s focus is more complicated.
(a) To me, there is no less-traveled road in this poem; it isn’t even an option. (Read the second verse again carefully)
(b) I strongly believe that the poem seems more concerned with the question of how the concrete present (yellow woods, grassy roads covered in fallen leaves) will look from a future vantage point.
(c) The ironic tone is inescapable: “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence.” The speaker anticipates his own future insincerity--his need, later on in life, to rearrange the facts and inject a dose of the lonely element into the account. I am quite sure that he knows that he will be inaccurate, at best, or hypocritical, at worst, when he looks at his own life as an example. In fact, he foretells that his future self will betray this moment of decision as if the betrayal were inevitable. To me, this realization is ironic and poignantly pathetic.
But the “sigh” is critical. Larry Finger says :
The sigh, widely interpreted as a sigh of regret, might also be interpreted ironically: in a 1925 letter to Crystine Yates of Dickson, Tennessee, asking about the sigh, Frost replied: “It was my rather private jest at the expense of those who might think I would yet live to be sorry for the way I had taken in life.”
The speaker will not, in his old age, merely gather the youth about him and say, “Do what I did, kiddos. I remained undaunted, took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” Rather, he may say this, but he will sigh first; for he won’t believe it himself. Somewhere in the back of his mind will remain the image of yellow woods and two equally leafy paths.
Personally, I think the last two lines are the most misunderstood lines in the poem and are ironic – the choice made little or no difference at all, the speaker’s objections to the contrary. See - Frost admits in the second and third stanzas that both paths may be equally worn and equally leaf-covered, and it is only in his future recollection that he will call one road “less traveled by”.
Finally, we must realize that The Road Not Taken is filled with the expectation of regret. Pay careful attention to the title. The implication is clear - he has to make a choice if he does not want to be stuck in the woods; yet he does not know how to make that decision and he will continue to wonder to measure what has been lost - the other path that is impossible or cannot be known. To me, Frost intended for us to sigh for a long time not for making the wrong decisions but rather to signify the passing of time, the coming to an end of a life filled with regret!
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So now do you have a different view of Frost’s The Road Not Taken? I opine that Frost is a greatly misunderstood man for few know about the many tragedies in his life (his dad died of TB, his mom died of cancer, his wife died had breast cancer and died of depression, his daughter Irma was committed to an asylum, Lesley and Carol committed suicide, Majorie and Elinor died shortly after birth and Frost himself suffered from depression and was seldom happy, his solace found only in writing poetry. Thus his poems are pessimistic and dark in meaning.Do leave a comment to share your views. Thanks!
Unknown Paula
For the most part, I think I agree with you. Your explanation sort of clears my mind up abit on why I never really seemed to agree with my English teacher when we were discussing this poem in school.
Like you said, the title says it all. It is about the road that was NOT taken, about the choice he did not take, about that missed opportunity.
In a way, I think it reflects on how we ourselves live life. Like how sometimes on hindsight we think, “oh, if only I did so-and-so..” or “What if..”. Because life is full of what-ifs that we will never know, and this poem is exactly that.
I think the poem is as such: as we make a choice today, we will imagine about ourselves in the future, thinking about the choice we are making now. And we will attempt to imagine, what if I take the other choice? But we will never find out. And yet, it is because of the choice we make today, it will make all the difference in our lives, because we will never know what would happen to our lives should we have taken the road not taken.
That is my reading.
Thanks Paula. I like this poem now more than I did yesterday. =)
Michelle 27 November 2008 at 1am
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A good re-look at the Frost poem. Guess I`m of those who read it the hallmark way…hehehe. Thanks for sharing this perspective.
Reading your commentary reminded me of two ways of interpreting historical texts - be they poems, literature or even sacred texts – which I learnt in one of those 101 courses.
I refer to ‘eisegesis’, a way of interpreting a text whereby the reader reads his/her own ideas and experience into the text. This way of interpreting a text stands in stark contrast to the other way – ‘exegesis’ – which is to draw out the meaning from the text based on the historical context it was written, the intention of the writer or the source, the life-setting of those times, etc.
Of course, most serious scholars if not all would advocate exegesis over eisegesis, the former purported to be more objective, therefore credible in contrast to a subjective eisegesis reading, which may distort the text as often as there are diverse readers with different ideas and experiences.
Personally I`m for exegesis, especially for the reading of sacred texts. But I will not discount eisegesis altogether because a reader’s experience, ideas and life situations are important to consider when giving meaning to texts.
I`m still thinking about these ways of understanding texts (in particular the religious ones) and these are my preliminary thoughts.
Do we go with exegesis that emphasizes reliance on authorial intentions, sacred traditions and mainline religious institutions? Or do we subscribe to clearly subjective readings according to one’s own personal lens of experiences, ideas, life situations and perhaps even hidden agendas? Both ways can result in diverging readings.
-SAM-
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Michelle,
Indeed this is a very moving, meaningful and beautiful poem; its enigma being the unspoken and hidden message that Frost wanted his readers to discover for themselves, and when they did, would truly sigh…missed opportunities can be painful :) but also teach us many lessons in life.
Your interpretation of the poem reflects your love and passion for Frost’s poem as well and am glad this post has reinforced your love for this poem and likewise for me, this post has made me even more passionate about Frost!!!
Sam,
WHAT A RESPONSE!!! Thanks so much for your very learned response to my humble take on Frost.
I hear where you are coming from and I have always longed to read biblical passages and other religious texts such the Mahabharata that way.
Eisegesis and exegesis are necessary if we want to enjoy the true essence of literary and sacred works because like what I mentioned before, the meaning is in the words and it is the receiver who gives meaning to the words that he/she is reading. Yet, to discount the meaning as intended by the writer would do no justice to the form and message of the text because in doing so, we would have deprived ourselves of yet another dimension of experience and reaction to that literary work.
I am with you because I am pro-exegesis because the contextual meaning holds the key to the purpose, meaning and perspective that the writer wants us to take.
Thanks so much for your very stimulating response. I was hesitant about posting this for fear that few would read it.
And so my friends, I bid you all, happy reading and a joyous pursuit of knowledge and learning experiences!
cheers!