The Road Not Taken

As I have already mentioned a few blog posts ago, poetry is not my thing, however I still have two favourite poems that I enjoy and that I feel really “hit home”. I have already shared one of those poems a few blog posts ago. Today I thought I should share the second one of those two poems. This one is entitled, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, 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 marked 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 travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

As credit should be given where credit is due, this is where I got the poem from: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-road-not-taken/

This poem really shows conformity.  We all live our lives according to one set path. Everyone’s lives follow this one set path. And we just follow this set path instead of breaking away and doing our own thing because that is not what is usually done. Whether it is fear, or the possibility of failure, or the possibility of following victim to society’s ridicule or simply not wanting to be different; whatever the reason is, we just tend to shut up and look around us to see what the people around us are doing and we just do that. We loose ourselves and our own individuality in this process.

My most favourite line in this poem is the last one which says, “I took the one last travelled and that has made all the difference”. That is one of my most favourite quotations even and this is the main reason why this poem appeals to me. It represents a lot. Innovation. Dreaming. Thinking out of the box. Rebellion. So much. Breaking away and doing your own thing is always associated with rebellion and rebellion is always associated with bad things. But actually doing your own thing is a good thing. Look, if nobody took the road less travelled we’d still be in the stone ages. It is because some random cave dude innovated do we have fire. Or someone thought out of the box that we have the wheel. Or modern day things that we now consider a necessity without life can’t be spent, like the internet, the computer, the cell phone.  Taking the road less travelled is so essential.

The reason why this poem holds position of being my second favourite. It tells you to be yourself and do your own thing. And how that is very important and beneficial.