The Road Not Taken

Here am I back again. It has been ages since I have felt like writing something. Is it becoz of sense of euphoria dosing out or is it the monotonous routine or even it may be the fact of not being able to concentrate. Anyways while reading the book -"Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki, I came across the poem by Robert Frost-" The Road Less Travelled". "Although I may have read the prose many times in the golden days of long ago (the good days of being innocent), it is only now that i think i have truly understood it fully. For those of u who haven't read it here's a copy for reference becoz for the rest of the blog am going to blabber abt it.-

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, 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 travelled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

What is the first thing that comes to your mind...is it the importance of making a decision that the other person didn’t take.......Does it seem to be encouraging self-reliance, not following where others have led. If the answer for u is YES then u r one of those people who have fallen prey to the words Robert used in this golden poem.( as I have been for almost 12 years).

About the poem, Frost asserted, "You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem - very tricky." And he is, of course, correct. The poem has been and continues to be used as an inspirational poem. But a close reading of the poem proves otherwise. It does not moralize about choice, it simply says that choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived it. Lets analyse it para by para:-

First Stanza – Describes Situation
The poem consists of four stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker describes his position. He has been out walking the woods and comes to two roads, and he stands looking as far down each one as he can see. He would like to try out both, but doubts he could to that, so therefore he continues to look down the roads for a long time trying to make his decision about which road to take.
Second Stanza – Decides to Take Less-Travelled Road
He had looked down the first one “to where it bent in the undergrowth,” and in the second stanza, he reports that he decided to take the other path, because it seemed to have less traffic than the first. But then he goes on to say that they actually were very similarly worn. The second one that he took seems less travelled, but as he thinks about it, he realizes that they were “really about the same.” Not exactly that same but only “about the same.”
Third Stanza – Continue Description of Roads
The third stanza continues with the cogitation about the possible differences between the two roads. He had noticed that the leaves were both fresh fallen on them both and had not been walked on, but then again claims that maybe he would come back and also walk the first one sometime, but he doubted he would be able to, because in life one thing leads to another and time is short.
Fourth Stanza – Two Tricky Words
The fourth stanza holds the key to the trickiness of the poem:

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 travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Those who interpret this poem as suggesting non-conformity take the word “difference” to be a positive difference. But there is nothing in the poem that suggests that this difference signals a positive outcome. The speaker could not offer such information, because he has not lived the “difference” yet.

The other word that leads non-discerning readers astray is the word “sigh.” By taking “difference” to mean a positive difference, they think that the sigh is one of nostalgic relief; however, a sigh can also mean regret. There is the “oh, dear” kind of sigh, but also the “what a relief” kind of sigh. Which one is it? We do not know. If it is the relief sigh, then the difference means the speaker is glad he took the road he did; if it is the regret sigh, then the difference would not be good, and the speaker would be sighing in regret. But the plain fact is we do not know what that sigh is. Again, the speaker of the poem does not even know the nature of that sigh, because that sigh and his evaluation of the difference his choice will make are still in the future. It is a truism that any choice we make is going to make “all the difference” in how our future turns out.

So Frost was absolutely correct; his poem is tricky—very tricky. But only if u are not careful reader. If we read into poems claims that are not there. And in this poem, it is important to be careful with the time frame. When the speaker says he will be reporting sometime in the future how his road choice turned out, we have to realize that we cannot assign meaning to “sigh” and “difference,” because the speaker himself cannot know how his choice will affect his future, until after he has lived it.

After writing all this, even I have started to feel a bit confused......why did i turn this philosophical?? Maybe it has something to do with my current mental state....Anyways if u have read it till this point.......Congrats u are absolutely vella ,even vella than me....well done Do hurl some abuses in the box below if u so wish...( Even a nice comment will do) .