When I heard that I almost freaked out! 😉 As hubby always says, where do they come up with this stuff? (And Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”, is rolling over in his grave…Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!)
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
Thank you for the literature lesson. I’d only heard the gist of it, not read the entirety.
Having done so, where the author ends the poem with, “I shall be telling this with a sigh”, is he lamenting his choice of the road less travelled?
Where then does that place the catchphrase from that viewpoint?
Am I reading this wrong? I thought I was wrong once, but alas, I was mistaken!
Ha! You’re funny. Okay, I’ll take a shot. Imagine that, analyzing Frost at The Trenches. There is some sanity left!!
Well, this is poetry and with it comes a lot of license. And metaphor. And who really can say what one feels in expressing a “sigh?” But I speculate as you did:
He may in a glance be seeing all that the road he chose afforded him, all the adventures, ups, downs, failures, triumphs. Not unlike a lot of us. And simultaneously, he may have sighed wondering what he had missed on the other road. But for me, one thing rings clear, he did not follow the herd, the majority, and was unimpeded by challenges, choosing his own way. Sometimes a sigh is just that no one will fully understand, and sometimes it’s just that it was all too wonderful to explain. Either way, me thinks no one alive is exempt from experiencing both heaven and hell (ease and struggle) right here on earth.
Thanks, Stewbum. Something happens in the soul when we try to understand each other, and it stirs a little deeper when a great poet comes along for the ride. Frost concluded:
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
🙂
.
Yep, I thought I was the only one who caught that, too. I was a little confused by that. Lol
So Shakespeare wrote a poem called “The Road Less Traveled”? Bwaahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahh!
I shoulda known you’d catch that!!
🙂
.
When I heard that I almost freaked out! 😉 As hubby always says, where do they come up with this stuff? (And Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”, is rolling over in his grave…Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!)
Ha! American Lit, 101. And for the hell of it…
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
.
Thank you for the literature lesson. I’d only heard the gist of it, not read the entirety.
Having done so, where the author ends the poem with, “I shall be telling this with a sigh”, is he lamenting his choice of the road less travelled?
Where then does that place the catchphrase from that viewpoint?
Am I reading this wrong? I thought I was wrong once, but alas, I was mistaken!
Ha! You’re funny. Okay, I’ll take a shot. Imagine that, analyzing Frost at The Trenches. There is some sanity left!!
Well, this is poetry and with it comes a lot of license. And metaphor. And who really can say what one feels in expressing a “sigh?” But I speculate as you did:
He may in a glance be seeing all that the road he chose afforded him, all the adventures, ups, downs, failures, triumphs. Not unlike a lot of us. And simultaneously, he may have sighed wondering what he had missed on the other road. But for me, one thing rings clear, he did not follow the herd, the majority, and was unimpeded by challenges, choosing his own way. Sometimes a sigh is just that no one will fully understand, and sometimes it’s just that it was all too wonderful to explain. Either way, me thinks no one alive is exempt from experiencing both heaven and hell (ease and struggle) right here on earth.
Thanks, Stewbum. Something happens in the soul when we try to understand each other, and it stirs a little deeper when a great poet comes along for the ride. Frost concluded:
“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”
🙂
.
Yep, I thought I was the only one who caught that, too. I was a little confused by that. Lol