Most people misread Robert Frost.
To most, he is a simple rustic poet for whom the muses might provide no more substance than the beauty of a blossoming apple tree.
But Frost is deep. And his simplicity is deceptive, and there is no greater proof of this than the line from "The Road Not Taken": "I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference." Judging by its appearance on inspirational posters and in television commercials, this line sums up, for many, the idea that a life lived to the fullest is that life which ventures down the untrodden path, the suggestion being that a person might find more fullfillment as an artist, for instance, than as a business man.
But see ... that isn't what Frost's poem is about. Here it is in full in case it's been a while since sophomore English:
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.
Did you catch it?
If not, then start with the title. If this guy is so happy with how his life turned out, why isn’t the poem titled, “The Road Taken”? Why is he focused on the path he left behind? Can you imagine writing a love poem to your spouse titled something like, “The Woman Not Married”?
And come on, if there really had been a road less traveled, how come “both that morning equally lay?” Isn’t it because “the passing there had worn them really about the same?”
Lastly, of course, there’s the sigh. Wow, things really must have turned out well for our friend. After all, don’t we all enjoy a good sigh when life turns out full of roses and sunshine? I always wonder about that third-to-last line, too, the one right before the quote people are always so fond of. What was he going to say before he caught himself: Two roads diverged in the woods and I really screwed up, perhaps.
But no, he catches himself. He fills in that awkward silence with self-delusion.
This guy, the speaker of Frost’s poem, didn’t take the road less traveled. He made the wrong choice. He regrets it. But “way leads on to way”, and rather than just come clean with himself, he does what so many of us do, which is to rationalize his mistake. This is why evangelization is so hard.
How many of the people we talk to have gone down the wrong path, and have built their paychecks, reputations, or lifestyles around that choice. How many of our own friends and family have written their own poems, some of them titled, “The Grace Not Accepted”, “The Commandments Not Followed”, or “The God Not Worshiped”?
Unlike in the Frost poem, however, there truly is a road less traveled in our spiritual lives. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:14 that the gate is small and the road is narrow that leads to life. Many will chose a different path though. After way leads on to way, many will realize their mistake, but as the old man in the poem has discovered, sometimes it is easier to comfort ourselves with platitudes than to make the difficult trip back to that fork in the road.
To most, he is a simple rustic poet for whom the muses might provide no more substance than the beauty of a blossoming apple tree.
But Frost is deep. And his simplicity is deceptive, and there is no greater proof of this than the line from "The Road Not Taken": "I took the one less traveled by / And that has made all the difference." Judging by its appearance on inspirational posters and in television commercials, this line sums up, for many, the idea that a life lived to the fullest is that life which ventures down the untrodden path, the suggestion being that a person might find more fullfillment as an artist, for instance, than as a business man.
But see ... that isn't what Frost's poem is about. Here it is in full in case it's been a while since sophomore English:
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.
Did you catch it?
If not, then start with the title. If this guy is so happy with how his life turned out, why isn’t the poem titled, “The Road Taken”? Why is he focused on the path he left behind? Can you imagine writing a love poem to your spouse titled something like, “The Woman Not Married”?
And come on, if there really had been a road less traveled, how come “both that morning equally lay?” Isn’t it because “the passing there had worn them really about the same?”
Lastly, of course, there’s the sigh. Wow, things really must have turned out well for our friend. After all, don’t we all enjoy a good sigh when life turns out full of roses and sunshine? I always wonder about that third-to-last line, too, the one right before the quote people are always so fond of. What was he going to say before he caught himself: Two roads diverged in the woods and I really screwed up, perhaps.
But no, he catches himself. He fills in that awkward silence with self-delusion.
This guy, the speaker of Frost’s poem, didn’t take the road less traveled. He made the wrong choice. He regrets it. But “way leads on to way”, and rather than just come clean with himself, he does what so many of us do, which is to rationalize his mistake. This is why evangelization is so hard.
How many of the people we talk to have gone down the wrong path, and have built their paychecks, reputations, or lifestyles around that choice. How many of our own friends and family have written their own poems, some of them titled, “The Grace Not Accepted”, “The Commandments Not Followed”, or “The God Not Worshiped”?
Unlike in the Frost poem, however, there truly is a road less traveled in our spiritual lives. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:14 that the gate is small and the road is narrow that leads to life. Many will chose a different path though. After way leads on to way, many will realize their mistake, but as the old man in the poem has discovered, sometimes it is easier to comfort ourselves with platitudes than to make the difficult trip back to that fork in the road.
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