The Road

There is a famous poem by Robert Frost that you are probably familiar with.  It's his poem titled The Road Not Taken and as I was trying to fall asleep last night, the verses unexpectedly popped in my head.  I suppose my sudden attention to the poem was some sort of after-effect of having been an English major, which included the study of many authors, poets, poems and stories.

This particular poem by Frost is a beautiful and honest questioning that not only invokes images of choosing a literal path but also provokes thought about past decisions, future decisions and the blatant fact that we as people are faced with choices very often in life.

In case you aren't familiar with the poem, it goes like this:

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.

Definitely one of the more well-known and popular poems, I love The Road Not Taken for its irony and quite literal contemplation of a journey.  

It's curious that such thoughts could be applied to something so ordinary, like which way I decided to drive to our office this morning.  Then there are the more significant and life-altering paths we choose, or are rather drawn to in life.  It seems at first, maybe the speaker in the poem is hesitant about his choice, even trying to peer as far down the fork in the road as he can, as if to try and see what the result of that choice would bring.

I received a very excited phone call from my sister just last night.  She has been accepted to a graduate program to receive her masters and teaching credential.  Words can't quite express how proud I am of my little sister and how thrilled I am for the journey she is waiting to begin.  It made me think, before she decided to go back to school, she too was looking down two paths.  Deciding to take the one, her results will be much different than if she hadn't embarked down that route.  These are truly the exciting and defining moments that are filled with anticipation and curiosity about what a chosen path will bring.

In thinking more about choices and the points Frost brings up in his poem, I have one additional comment.  I think it's the irony the poet is trying to bring to front with his words but it's interesting the speaker chooses one path while thinking about the other.  While I too constantly think about what if one decision would have been made over the other, I think I'd rather resolve to focus on the choices I did make and the wonderful outcomes most of them have had.  Maybe I would have titled the poem The Road I Have Taken instead of  The Road Not Taken... But that's enough poetry for one day, tonight when I fall asleep I hope to put Frost aside and be thinking about what my next great adventure could possibly be.