![]() But perhaps it applies equally well to the inclination of habit and routine. Traditionally, we apply this statement to the battle against the desire for physical gratification and amoral self-interest. To challenge ourselves with the unfamiliar, to force ourselves to overcome new obstacles, to seek out opportunities to discover new resources of talent, ability, and creativity - these are the pathways that, "somewhere ages and ages hence" will be what "has made all the difference." But for the narrator, the inclination born of habit predisposed him in one direction, where a different traveler inclined by his own forces of habit might find himself predisposed to take the other path.Īnd so Frost does not ponder the choice between roads more or less traveled by others, but contemplates which kind of road he has traveled more or less himself. The two roads diverging in Frost's yellow wood lay equally trodden in absolute terms. When facing decision, human nature prods us along the path of least resistance, the path that poses the least danger, the least challenge and, consequently, the least opportunity for personal growth.įrost does not ponder the choice between roads more or less traveled by others, but contemplates which kind of road he has traveled more or less himself. We resist the unknown, the untried, the untested. We favor the familiar, the easy, the undemanding. Taken thus, the yellow wood represents not the habit of age but the habit of human nature. It may be a time when one begins to reflect upon opportunities missed, upon chances not taken, upon the caution that urges the traveler to consider the roads ahead and lookĪs his choices and options diminish with the anticipated approach of his twilight years, it is here that the traveler through life hopes to catch sight of his final destination before committing himself irrevocably to one path or the other. ![]() Since Frost is clearly describing not a ramble through the woods but a journey through life, the autumnal image of the yellow wood suggests the last years of middle age, the time when one is set in his ways and resistant to - but not yet incapable of - change. Why did the wood have to be yellow? Since we generally visualize forests as green, would we not expect the wood to be described as emerald, or verdant, or leafy? Why did Frost choose to depict his forest as yellow, the color of the first turning of the leaves with the onset of autumn? So which is it? Were the roads the same or were they different? And if they were the same, then what did it matter which one he chose?įrost offers his first clue in his first line: However, he immediately contradicts himself by declaring, The attentive reader discovers that it was never Frost's style to merely paint landscapes out of words or to render such trite messages as "favor the road less-traveled." Frost had a sharp, unforgiving eye that focused not on the beauties of nature but upon man's frequent failure to recognize his own place in the natural world.Īnd so "The Road Not Taken," like so many of Frost's poems, ripples with subtle but troubling inconsistencies. However, in my days as a student of literature at the University of California, I learned that Robert Frost is among the most famously misunderstood of poets. ![]() It is indeed refreshing to hear the voice of youth, albeit second hand, recognizing the fallacy of a new conformism that preaches non-conformity - or, even worse, anti-conformity. Departing from the expected formula, the young speaker argued with Frost's message by defending those with the courage to walk the well-traveled road of tradition in the face of social pressure to reject establishment and convention. Instead, the writer was pleasantly surprised. The writer described the collect sigh of resignation that whispered through the assembled relatives and friends as one of the graduate-speakers began by reciting Robert Frost's classic poem, "The Road Not Taken." The captive audience seemed to anticipate a predictable excursion along the overly well-trodden road of invoking Frost's verse as a paean to individuality and non-conformism. I recently read an account of an Orthodox Jewish girls' high school graduation ceremony.
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