The Road Not Taken
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.
- Robert Frost
I know many of you have read this poem many times. Time for me now to tell you something about this.
Well today we missed few roads even after following proper signs. That’s the irony of Indian Roads. Only after you reach the end you will know that it closed or a wrong way and you still have directions pointing it :) and you end up in a road that is never taken. Trust me this is what happens on Bangalore – Mysore (Kanakapura Road) highway if you follow proper directions that you will come across. Spoiled my evening :( which I was expecting to be one of the best. That is when I thought of writing some comments about this poem which was on my mind for quite some time. I remember this from the books I have read in my childhood. Of course I don’t read any now. The Road Never Taken made this all :)
This poem didn’t make any sense when I first read it, as a kid. In fact I felt the author might be mad to write such a poem and of course the publisher too to publish it. It was like, what his problem; he can take the 2 different roads on 2 different days and still try both of them. For this he has to write a poem and people read it. And that was the understanding when I was a kid. Don’t laugh; I am sure yours will also be the same.
Now after passing considerable time in my life, I know what it means. You can never take two ways. Always a choice when you have to decide having multiple options. And life has too many choices for everything. Once you chose something, there is no coming back. That’s what ruined my evening too a wrong choice of road. The end of 3rd stanza and the 4th stanza says it all.
What is that one is going to do when it is realized that the way taken was wrong. There is no going back. Stick with it for the life time? Feel bad for opting a wrong choice which took where you are now? Feel good for what you have now? Regret for doing that? Accept that a mistake that cannot be corrected is done? Justify your choice, expecting the other road might have been worse? Ignore the choice taken, the past and focus on the remaining part?
After all this now you have two roads again. Which one to take? :).
So you end up with more confusion considering the past choices and their effects and trying to decide now on what we think the learning from the personal experience.
Ok now can you be sure it is the right choice and “I doubted if I should ever come back”.
The more you live the more you get experience the choices get more and more complicated.
This is what Life is all about. Making your choices right where you don’t have a second chance.
The paths are totally different and so are the things that come along, the people, the places, the joys, the sorrows.
“I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
Frost never expressed that the road he took is a better one or worse. All it says is a sigh :), which can be expressed both when one is happy and sad too and also he just says that it is a difference made not making it clear it is a positive or negative.
So there is something tricky about this poem which Frost left it for breaking your heads now :). Now find the sigh and the difference. I am still doing. Join me…? LOL
Need to catch up some sleep before I go to work tomorrow...
