The Road Not Taken is a poem, published in 1916, by Robert Frost (1874–1963). Summary
This poem tells the story of the poet who is travelling on a road in a wood when he comes upon a fork in the road and, even though he would like to travel both, he has to make a choice. He contemplates where both roads will take him. While one road is well trodden and safe, the other road is grassy and has not yet gone through the rigours of time and thus, as he says, had the better claim. He also remarks as to the fact that on that morning, neither road had been travelled upon. He took the road less trodden, keeping the first road for another day. But he realizes that he may probably not have a chance to go back on his choice, because one choice leads to another and the world moves too fast for one to look back.
Later on, when he is recounting his tale, he says that he has no regrets of his choice and that choice has made all the difference and led him to where he was that day.
Background
The inspiration for it (The Road Not Taken) came from Frost’s amusement over a familiar mannerism of his closest friend in England, Edward Thomas. While living in Gloucestershire in 1914, Frost frequently took long walks with Thomas through the countryside. Repeatedly Thomas would choose a route which might enable him to show his American friend a rare plant or a special vista; but it often happened that before the end of such a walk Thomas would regret the choice he had made and would sigh over what he might have shown Frost if they had taken a "better" direction. More than once, on such occasions, the New Englander had teased his Welsh-English friend for those wasted regrets. Disciplined by the austere biblical notion that a man, having put his hand to the plow, should not look back, Frost found something quaintly romantic in sighing over what might have been. Such a course of action was a road never taken by Frost, a road he had been taught to avoid. In a reminiscent mood, not very long after his return to America as a successful, newly discovered poet, Frost pretended to "carry himself" in the manner of Edward Thomas just long enough to write "The Road Not Taken". Immediately, he sent a manuscript copy of the poem to Thomas, without comment, and yet with the expectation that his friend would notice how the poem pivots ironically on the un-Frostian phase, "I shall be telling this with a sign". As it turned out Frost’s expectations were disappointed. Thomas missed the gentle jest because the irony had been handled too slyly, too subtly.
A short time later, when "The Road Not Taken" was published in the Atlantic Monthly for August 1915, Frost hoped that some of his American readers would recognize the pivotal irony of the poem; but again he was disappointed. Self-defensively he began to drop hints as he read "The Road Not Taken" before public audiences. On one occasion he told of receiving a letter from a grammar-school girl who asked a good question of him: "Why the sigh?" That letter and that question, he said, had prompted an answer. End of the hint. On another occasion, after another public reading of "The Road Not Taken", he gave more pointed warnings: "You have to be careful of that one; it’s a trick poem – very tricky". Never did he admit that he carried himself and his ironies too subtly in that poem, but the circumstances are worth remembering here as an illustration that Frost repeatedly liked to "carry himself" dramatically, in a poem or letter, by assuming a posture not his own, simply for purposes of mockery – some times gentle and at other times malicious.
Autobiographical background
Born in San Francisco, Robert Frost spent most of his adult life in rural New England and his laconic language and emphasis on individualism in his poetry reflects this region. He attended Dartmouth College and Harvard University but never earned a degree and as a young man with a growing family he attempted to write poetry while working on a farm or teaching in a school.
However, American editors rejected his submitted poems. Frost moved his family to England in 1912 and in the following year, a London publisher brought out his first book. After publishing his second book, Frost returned to America determined to win a reputation in his own country, which he gradually achieved. He became one of the country's best loved poets. Unlike his contemporaries, Frost chose not to experiment with new verse forms but to employ traditional patterns, or, as he said, he chose "the old fashioned way to be new."
Explanation and misinterpretations
The most popular explanation of this poem is that it is a call for the reader to forge his or her own way in life and not follow the path that others have already taken.
However, it is also possible to read it as an ironic statement against such notions [1]. Frost is said to have written the poem as a sly joke on his friend Edward Thomas, and to have warned audiences, "You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem—very tricky."
For though this poem is often cited as a source for inspiration and encouraging individuality it contains key contradictions and ambiguities. After all, lines 9-10 state, "Though as for that the passing there/Had worn them really about the same." So, even though it is often read and taught that the speaker chooses "the one less traveled by," the speaker of the poem contradicts himself by saying the roads were ultimately the same. This is further illuminated in line 11's declaration that, "And both that morning equally lay" (emphasis added).
The misreading that the speaker takes "the one less traveled by" is the first of two popular misinterpretations. According to Frost, the key to the poem is found in line 16, "I shall be telling this with a sigh". Also, the ambiguity of the closing lines, "I took the one less traveled by,/And that has made all the difference." A close reading of this highly anthologized poem must admit that the speaker leaves the reader wondering whether they mean it has made a good or bad difference in the speaker's life-and of course, why is the speaker telling it with a sigh?
Some believe readers must acknowledge that though the poem closes in ambiguity, it is clear the initial choice of the road taken has made all the difference, for because of that choice, "way leads on to way." Continuing with such thoughts on what the poem says about choice, still others suggest that the line "And that has made all the difference" is meant to be one of jest or sarcasm. Thus the traveler (ie, Frost) is trying to tell the reader that the most important issue is simply to choose and therefore not become lost trying to decide whether to take this or that road. The important issue, then, is to make the decision and then follow through.
Another take on is that though the speaker reluctantly takes the less travelled road, it was infact the better choice. The speaker was unable to understand that the other road, though appearance to be the same as the other was actually the better choice all together and that following his gut instinct was a wiser choice. Most times the right decision is clouded with uncertainty.
There are some who suggest that the poem is, in fact, about how when we tell stories we lie and add meaning to them [2]. If we are to read Frost as a modernist [3] or a realist, then this would make sense, as the application of symbolism to this choice in the woods would be a romantic gesture.
A touching story of a woman who drew inspiration from this poem
The Road Less Traveled (by Mary McCool)
I saw Sister Mary Scullion on the news again last night. Sister Mary is a highly respected advocate for the homeless here in Philadelphia. She is frequently in the news. This time she was with actress Lily Tomlin who was here doing a benefit performance for the homeless. As always, as soon as I heard her name mentioned I stopped what I was doing to sit and watch. I used to know Mary Scullion. We went to Little Flower High School together and since my last name used to be Sciole and hers was Scullion I ended up sitting in front of her in homeroom for four years.
We didn't hang around together or anything. She was on the Student Council and was always volunteering for this and that. I was in the orchestra and that pretty much took up all of my time. But you can't sit in front of someone for 45 minutes a day for four years without getting to know them a little. She was an easy person to be friendly with. She was funny, good natured, and down-to-earth, the kind of person you could be buddies with. She was an ordinary girl.
At first when I used to see her on TV or read about her in the paper it would bother me. She reminded me of that poem by Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken." He writes about having to choose between two roads. He "took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
Mary and I graduated from high school together. She took the road less traveled. She deliberately chose a difficult life, one of constantly fighting to help people unable to help themselves.
I, however, never wanted a difficult life. I always tried to take the easy road, and make the easy choices. I went to college, chose a major that wouldn't give me much trouble, graduated, got married, got a job in an office, all ordinary things. There I was traveling down that nice easy road and all of a sudden there's a roadblock Nineteen years ago I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Katie. Ten little fingers, ten little toes, and 47 chromosomes. All of a sudden I couldn't get down that road I chose. I had to detour over to the road less traveled and start struggling through the underbrush. And I really didn't want to do it. Everyone told me that God had chosen me to have a Down's Syndrome child for a reason, that I was special. I didn't want to be special. I wanted things to be easy. But even though I wished that God had chosen someone else I did the best I could. I learned all I could about Down's Syndrome and mental retardation. I got her into an Early Intervention Program and did all the infant stimulation exercises with her. My husband and I got involved with the parents group at her preschool and when she got older we fought with the school district to get her into the most appropriate program. We continue to fight for her.
After a while things seemed to get easier. The path looked like it was getting clearer again. I had a standard model son, Jay, who is now thirteen. I figured I could relax. Then almost nine years ago God chose us again. I just don't understand what it is with God. I had another beautiful baby girl, Molly, who at first seemed perfect. Then when she was eight weeks old she had several seizures and after extensive testing the doctors told us she had an abnormality of the white matter of the brain. So there I was getting detoured again, back on the road less traveled, struggling through the underbrush. And this time the going was a lot harder. Katie was handicapped but always healthy. Molly had had seizures and apnea episodes so the first year and a half of her life was spent on medication and an apnea monitor. In addition to cognitive and motor delays she also has an auditory dysfunction and vision problems. We went back to Early Intervention and infant stimulation and this time a lot more doctor visits. Now I'm learning sign language.
I used to watch Mary Scullion and feel guilty. I thought that there is a person who obviously is good at the hard stuff. She chose that road. Me, I wanted it easy, I'm not good at this. It's a constant struggle. God shouldn't have picked me. He should have picked Mary Scullion.
Then not too long ago something finally occurred to me. Maybe Mary deliberately picked the road less traveled and I got detoured onto it but once I got here I had a choice. I could have chosen to lie down in the road and let the weeds grow over me. I'm not. I'm fighting my way through the underbrush. Maybe I'm not too thrilled about it but I'm doing it and when I stop to think about it I think I'm doing it pretty damn well. Maybe God knows what he's doing after all.
Hear that noise? That's Mary Scullion and me, chopping down the weeds. It's not hard once you get used to it.
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2/23英文課 Bennett給我們讀這首英文詩
Bennett並放Robert Frost親自朗誦這首詩的錄音帶給我們聽
可能是還不太能領會英文詩的奧妙吧 不曉得它的神韻再哪
所以剛開始並沒有什麼特殊的感覺
但後來Bennett說起他的經驗......
在回台灣教書之前 他面臨人生重大的抉擇
究竟是要留在伴他走過大半成長歲月的加拿大
還是要回到那個名為故鄉 實則陌生如異域的台灣？
有許多因素 使得兩邊各自形成一股強大的力量在牽引著他
......最後 他選擇台灣
很多ABC或者從小就負笈他鄉的人想必都面臨過這個問題吧
究竟哪一條路才是適合自己的？ 沒有人知道
唯有選擇其中之一走下去 才會知道這條路通往哪個方向
至於另一條無緣的路是佈滿荊棘 抑或是康莊大道
只能拿著夢想的畫筆在心中悄悄地勾勒 去幻想 去猜測......
想起一路走來的過程
自己現在走的 是條以前從來沒有想過會走的路
這領域的一切 許許多多都是那麼地陌生
我無法去評斷填志願時所做的決定是對是錯
如果選擇另一條路 那我會變成怎樣的一個人？
可能比現在更好 也可能更壞 我沒有機會知道
但那絕對是個截然不同的人生
或許正因為是條陌生的路 這半年多
雖然有時走得辛苦 但卻驚喜不斷
進入台大校園 認識許許多多新朋友 和一些摯友有更多機會相處
然後變成一個AIESECer 與許多志同道合的夥伴一塊兒衝理想
也在很多事情上找到肯定自己的力量......一切的一切 都是我以前從未想過的
儘管偶爾還是會迷惘 有點無法肯定自己
懷疑自己在人生的一個重要岔路口 是不是選錯了方向
但至少 在那個做決定的當下 是順著自己的直覺
所做的一切 也仍秉持著一貫的初衷
還是這樣走下來了 其實走得還是開心
不是一直平平順順 但充滿著一種不同感覺的驚喜
透過身邊曾經共患難過的好朋友們
在他們身上 我依然看得到那條自己差點走上的路
但 我始終面帶微笑
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