Robert Frost's Road: The Not So Simple Truth

Usually, I am just so glad to see poetry referenced or read that it matters very little what the reader finds in a poem. But enough is enough with this one and I feel we owe it to Robert Frost to at least try to get readers with the program here; after all, he was a man who worked hard at articulating big truths at a time when we were more concerned with perfecting the big lie. Also, Frost's message is so much better than the interpretation by those with an undiscerning eye who mistakenly use this poem to represent the encouragement of self-reliance and not following where others have led. His message is actually close to the opposite. Frost said himself "you have to be careful of that one; it's tricky-very tricky." But it is not so very tricky if you read it-really read it as poetry deserves to be read. There is no road less traveled and he tells us this plainly as he examines his paths saying they were really worn about the same...it will only become the less traveled road "somewhere ages and ages hence" when he tells his story with a "sigh." In other words, he knows right now that some time in the future he will give credit to the path he took as making all the difference, when actually it will probably make no difference at all. As an old man he will look back, decide to place importance on this particular decision in his life. He will try to explain and give a sense of order to his life-implying that his decisions made all the difference, when in fact, a lot has to be credited to chance and luck. Look at the title: the poem is about a man taking a path that he would describe later as the "one less traveled" yet the title of the poem is "The Road Not Taken" telling us that there was actually no less traveled road to take. If this explanation is not accepted, then one must bring forth Frost's actual words about this poem spoken at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in 1953: "I wasn't thinking about myself there, but about a friend who had gone off to war, a person who, whichever road he went, would be sorry he didn't go the other. He was hard on himself that way." This friend was Edward Thomas whom Frost walked with in the woods near London. Frost explained that when they would walk, they would come to different paths and after choosing one, Thomas would always fret, wondering what they missed by not taking the other path. Thomas' evidently also suffered from an undiscerning eye and was unable to see that it really made no difference.

So suggest that undiscerning eyes "take the road less traveled" and see the real meaning of this poem. This well loved poet has a message for us-don't let it go misinterpreted-for that is where the message is usually needed the most.