The Road Not Taken
The Road Not TakenTwo 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.
How can I not put my favourite poem if I should call this my blog. Being back in Swiss, teaching, makes me remember my secondary school days. Perhaps the more significant part of those days is the experience with poetry at upper secondary. Poetry is powerful, expressive, though disguised within succintly few words.
This was the poem shown to us, Lit class, in our first / second lesson. The precious few of us, 19, after a year with no lit class, were likened to people taking a less-travelled road. Though, sadly, some were there because they didn't get their choice subject combination.
Frost's poem, of course, doesn't just matter to Literature and romantic (in the original sense of the word, not modern lovey-dovey meaning) people. It relates to everyday choices we make. Do we choose well-trodden paths? Do we choose to be different? And will we look back with a sigh? Will we regret?
"And that has made all the difference."