The Road Not Taken….
In Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” the poet is faced with two roads, two decisions, and two potential alternatives, here “road” symbolizes a path in life, and a choice between the two roads symbolize life decisions……..what we call as CHOICES. This poem brings out three big questions in life what might have occurred, what could have been, and how things would have happened if we would have chosen otherwise.
In life…..there are roads that direct you to recognition and affluence or seclusion and scarcity. There are roads to contentment and there are roads to melancholy, roads leading to victory and triumph, and roads towards defeat and discontent and just like any other road life also has its corners, detours, and crossroads. We often stand on these crossroads not able to decide, which road we will take? Do we have an assurance that we would choose the right one? The answer is there is no assurance.
No one knows where a road will lead to until we take it. There is no assurance. Every choice will not lead you to happiness. Since life offers no guarantee you might as well take the risk and decide. You have the choice between being a lost explorer or an accidental tourist of life; it is all a matter of perspective.
I often hear people nab about …..“ I wish I had become that.” Or “I could have done this.” But, they didn’t do it…..never made the choice. We think that the big choices like life’s decisions, are the most important however, fact is that it’s the small things we do on a daily basis that make all the difference over time. So what difference are we going to choose today? Which path are we going to take; we may not always choose the right path……but, at least it will be our own choice. After making the choices, prepare yourself to face the consequences be it good or bad……they may take you to a place of promise or to a land of problems but you’ll be pleased that YOU have written YOUR life’s story.
To conclude I will simply say don’t regret the choices you make coz life is toooooooooooo long and you’ll get to make another one tomorrow, with all the experience you have acquired hopefully you’ll make a better one tomorrow. Don’t be a bystander or a passive spectator to your own life, choose wisely and create your own reality.
I love Robert Frost. I remembered studying that poem once I read it. His favourite poem of my is “The Mending Wall” which also has some good points in it. You are right to say we have to choose a path and we do not know which way that path will lead or how we will be once we have gone that path, but we have to make a choice. There is a poem by a Canadian Poet Margaret Avison called the “Whirl Pool,” it also talks about choices and how we end up on the otherside. Thanks
Thanks Amanda, I just read “The Swimmer’s Moment” by NArgaret Avison and “The Mending Wall” both so beautifully written and insightful, thinking of writing a post on one of them.
yeah….that’s not what this poem is about. it’s robert frost reminding us that the privilege of old age is lying (exaggerating) to your children and your children’s children, that you made the “tough choices in life”…you walked up hill to school both directions in freezing weather….and somehow, we were always kinder, never out past curfew, obeyed our parents, held the door for strangers and always ate our food that mamma prepared….even if we didn’t do any of those things with regularity. There are two paths – that are exactly the same and neither actually have been walked on. That’s your standard metaphor for life. We can’t really see ahead – and what we can see looks exactly the same. AND – We can’t go back in time again – and there are no do-overs in life (way leads on to way) – and in the end, the only thing we can do – is sigh – and ultimately – LIE – and tell everyone that we took the harder path in life – and that made the difference in his life (even though at the time he had no idea if it was harder or not – we don’t know which path he chose because it’s irrelevant). The narrator even specifically states -that both paths looked the same. BUT years and years from now – I will tell everyone I made the right choices – that i could see the difference and took the hard way. Robert Frost writes this – because for generations – we have done this. We always tell the previous generation how much harder life was when we were younger. The “motivational” statement this poem is making – is “congratulations – if you live long enough – you’ll get the chance to brag about the person you never really were.” And frankly, that’s a lot closer to Robert Frost in real life.
Thats a new way to look at life as a whole, Thanks for your comment!