Your ideas on this famous poem

[Sospira]

For Frost, yellow can also be the color of spring/youth:

Nature's first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

In The Road Not Taken, I think the yellow wood represents the naive and somewhat self-indulgent idealism of youth: the voice inside that says Oh my non-conformity really separates me from my fellow humans. It doesn't, of course, because everyone ultimately goes his or her own way (way leading to way). In fact, the idea that there even was a "road less traveled by" turns out to be a youthful illusion: both roads are equally worn. As Frost envisions his youthful "choice" to be different (or perhaps even to become a poet), he retrojects--almost like a voice-over for the image of the two paths--an ironic and gently self-reproaching reflection:

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.

This is why the title of the poem is "The Road Not Taken" rather than "The Road Less Traveled By" (as many people call it). With maturity, one comes to understand that The Road Not Taken is exactly where one has always walked.

Many young people, of course, love this poem because they see their own supposed non-conformity reflected in the stanza above. The polite thing to do is to let them figure it out for themselves, as Frost did.

You seem familiar with this poem? I agree with just about everything you said except that we all take 'the road not taken.' He takes the other road.

[Sospira]

Points taken. Kincaid has reloaded.
Undergrowth - that's not trees so I shouldn't have said that. But it's the briars and ferns and primroses etc. enough to hide sight off the path once it takes a bend. What path is straight? (That which leads to ....)
In stanza the second he makes up his mind and yes there's the egotism of the soul that will not leap with the common herd but there's also the rueful acknowledgement that the desire to be different was not that different after all. Perhaps he was then at a stage in his life where he could not distinguish all that well between conformity and posing rebellion. Maybe the emphasis though should be placed on the Now and not the Then of the speaking voice.
The tone is wry, serious, reflective, dry.
There is deliberate ambiguity. Kincaid could afford no ambiguities on the battlefield. Nor false heroism. When he had to git he git.
Are we satis so far Sospira?

I like your analysis especially the idea that maybe as a young person he couldn't distinguish between conformity and rebellion.

[Pompey Bum]

You seem familiar with this poem?

I grew up in New England where we had Frost read to us starting in elementary school. I don't want to get off topic, but there is one poem of his, called Storm Fear, that gets to me still after all these years (I'm 55 now). It reminds me of the first few years of my marriage, when we had a house but not much money, and I used to sit up at night when a blizzard would come, after my wife had gone to bed, to be sure that the house was okay. I had a book of Frost's poetry in those days, and sometimes I would read it as the storm howled. I remember reading Storm Fear on one of those nights, and looking out the window, and just feeling the poem go through me.

STORM FEAR

When the wind works against us in the dark,
And pelts with snow
The lowest chamber window on the east,
And whispers with a sort of stifled bark,
The beast,
'Come out! Come out!'-
It costs no inward struggle not to go,
Ah, no!
I count our strength,
Two and a child,
Those of us not asleep subdued to mark
How the cold creeps as the fire dies at length,-
How drifts are piled,
Dooryard and road ungraded,
Till even the comforting barn grows far away
And my heart owns a doubt
Whether 'tis in us to arise with day
And save ourselves unaided.

On a more intellectual, less visceral level, I believe it to be a poem about needing God so much that one begins to doubt one's own atheism. But for me, in those days, it was just about trying to hold on.

Okay, sorry for the OT.

[ennison]

OT? Old (Man's) Testament. Stanza the third. Morning suggests youth but there are leaves on the path as yet untrodden into black mush so I'll stick with autumn of his life rather than yellow for callow youth. Which I see and know it as a symbol both private and common of such.
I read the rest of the stanza too as the words of one already experienced enough to know most roads tend to criss cross and certainly all head for the same end.
And just as usually we don't get second chances.
I don't know what age he was when he wrote this so I'm just guessing but Frost was sharp enough to create a middle aged persona so perhaps this is not the voice of experience in the way I see it.
Last stanza. Sigh Regret etc. Hyperbole follows unless he means the poem itself - the speaking text. Ah wonderful to be so sure of ones work lasting!
So Post- Calvinist summation. It's a poem about the illusion of choice in a predestined universe but as humans we have to act as if we have choice and determine our own destiny. And that's what makes us human and therefore different. Kincaid's got to git now

[Pompey Bum]

Yes, the Old Testament. I feel really bad about it now. Especially Leviticus. Honest to God, just dress how you like. (No dwarves in the Temple, though).

[AuntShecky]

Frost's idea for this poem may have come from observing the behavior of one of his contemporaries, a lesser- known poet. If you happen to have a copy of the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, please take a look at the footnote on the bottom of page 196, where the editor states:

"According to Lawrence Thompson, this poem was a slightly mocking parody of the behavuior of Frost's friend, Edward Thomas, who used to choose a direction for their country walks, then, before they had finished, berate himself for not having chose a different, more interesting way. Frost, says Thompson, did not approve of romantic "sighing over what might have been."

As I see it, the difficulty in making even the most trivial decisions as well as insecurity over past actions are aspects of the perculiarly American character. The theme can be found in the literature of the last and current centuries, among poets such as Delmore Schwartz and especially in the novels of Richard Ford and Richard Russo.

As a sidebar, take a look at this online article on rampant misinterpretations of "The Road Not Taken."



http://www.thescreamonline.com/essay...01/poetry.html

[Hawkman]

Somewhere in the famous quoted line poetry completion thread I wrote a very silly parody this one.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
Though why it was yellow was not understood.
Were all the trees cowards, afraid of the axe,
That could smite them to lumber for putting in sacks,
Or was it disease that affected the trees,
Infected by X-file type, modified bees?

The answer, I felt, lay down one of the paths,
One strewn with stones and the other with laths.
The mystery now I just had to unravel,
So I followed the one that was covered with gravel.
The custard wood lured me deeper within
And I wished that a priest could have shriven my sin.

But at last, in a clearing, the answer I found,
It was obvious now that I looked all around,
At the top of a ladder, quite close to a tree,
A man with a spray-gun was looking at me.
He pointed his weapon and right then I fainted
And found when I woke, that I too, had been painted.

[YesNo]

As a sidebar, take a look at this online article on rampant misinterpretations of "The Road Not Taken."

In the article you linked to, John Kilgore writes:

Frost, of course, is not celebrating anything–not his own dark and difficult life, not a flimsy, Marlboro-man vision of heroic selfhood–nor is he re-casting the Biblical injunction to shun the broad and beaten way in favor of the virtuous straight and narrow. He is lamenting life's choices and the relentless one-way march of time, in a wistful, quiet, lonely little poem whose speaker has no idea whether he took the right path or not, does not brag, offers no advice, hints that life is rather unfair, and seems on the whole more oppressed and puzzled than anyone.

Now how do we know that Kilgore's interpretation is itself not a misunderstanding?

I don't see any lamenting of life's choices in the poem, just an acknowledgement that one choice was made. Sure, time is a one-way road, but does that make this a "lonely" poem or a "little" poem? Where does Frost hint that life is "unfair"? Where is Frost "oppressed"? Where in the poem is he "puzzled"? Why reference Frost's "dark and difficult life"?

[Paulclem]

In the article you linked to, John Kilgore writes:

Frost, of course, is not celebrating anything–not his own dark and difficult life, not a flimsy, Marlboro-man vision of heroic selfhood–nor is he re-casting the Biblical injunction to shun the broad and beaten way in favor of the virtuous straight and narrow. He is lamenting life's choices and the relentless one-way march of time, in a wistful, quiet, lonely little poem whose speaker has no idea whether he took the right path or not, does not brag, offers no advice, hints that life is rather unfair, and seems on the whole more oppressed and puzzled than anyone.

Now how do we know that Kilgore's interpretation is itself not a misunderstanding?

I don't see any lamenting of life's choices in the poem, just an acknowledgement that one choice was made. Sure, time is a one-way road, but does that make this a "lonely" poem or a "little" poem? Where does Frost hint that life is "unfair"? Where is Frost "oppressed"? Where in the poem is he "puzzled"? Why reference Frost's "dark and difficult life"?

It says he's sorry he could not take both (roads).

I think the simplicity but universality of his particular experience is what makes it resonate with readers. There's not a lot to say about what happens, but the basic choice of path and the significance of whichever way is chosen is recognisable in everyone's experience, whatever interpretation might be attributed Frosts particular circumstance.

[Pompey Bum]

I thought the Kilgore article was funny but a little mean spirited. (Any teacher who enjoys disillusioning students that much needs a vacation if not a career change). Also I don't see the common, erroneous interpretation of The Road Not Taken as representative of a "Marlboro Man" mentality (which I take to mean that of a macho loner). Young people just like to think that they are special. And they are special--but not always in the ways they think.

[YesNo]

I often make such decisions when walking. Shall I follow this trail or that through the forest preserve? I would like to follow both, but then there is only so much daylight. I can also see this poem originating because of Frost's walks with Edward Thomas as Aunt Shecky and this article note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken

However, even the Wikipedia article I cite has this to say:

The poem, besides being among the best known, is also one of the most misunderstood.

More than the poem itself, that idea is what I think needs to be critically examined. Is this poem really so "misunderstood"? I don't think so. The interpretations of the poem provided by many in this thread show adequate understanding of the poem and Kilgore's alternate interpretation doesn't fit the poem well at all.

Although Frost writes that he's "sorry", Paulclem, how does this validate Kilgore's interpretation: "He is lamenting life's choices and the relentless one-way march of time, in a wistful, quiet, lonely little poem whose speaker has no idea whether he took the right path or not, does not brag, offers no advice, hints that life is rather unfair, and seems on the whole more oppressed and puzzled than anyone."

Frost, or perhaps it was Edward Thomas, whom Frost may have been describing, doesn't seem any more oppressed and puzzled than I would be choosing trails to walk through the forest preserves around Chicago.

[ennison]

This is a great poem partly because it conceals its poetry under a conversational quietness.

[mazHur]

which great poem>> sorry I can't find it.
Seems folks are talking about Robert Frost??

[ennison]

Har har iron eye iron aye Mr / Mrs mazHur good try good try

[Paulclem]

I often make such decisions when walking. Shall I follow this trail or that through the forest preserve? I would like to follow both, but then there is only so much daylight. I can also see this poem originating because of Frost's walks with Edward Thomas as Aunt Shecky and this article note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken

However, even the Wikipedia article I cite has this to say:

The poem, besides being among the best known, is also one of the most misunderstood.

More than the poem itself, that idea is what I think needs to be critically examined. Is this poem really so "misunderstood"? I don't think so. The interpretations of the poem provided by many in this thread show adequate understanding of the poem and Kilgore's alternate interpretation doesn't fit the poem well at all.

Although Frost writes that he's "sorry", Paulclem, how does this validate Kilgore's interpretation: "He is lamenting life's choices and the relentless one-way march of time, in a wistful, quiet, lonely little poem whose speaker has no idea whether he took the right path or not, does not brag, offers no advice, hints that life is rather unfair, and seems on the whole more oppressed and puzzled than anyone."

Frost, or perhaps it was Edward Thomas, whom Frost may have been describing, doesn't seem any more oppressed and puzzled than I would be choosing trails to walk through the forest preserves around Chicago.

Hi YesNo. I wasn't clear. I think Kilgore overstates it, but for me the sorry he couldn't take two paths adds an air of lamentation to it. I should have explained what I meant.