The unveiling of the best: WattMag_PH - October Issue

Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

TOPIC: Featured Poem: Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken

UN: LexGarcia

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

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.

Title: The Road Not Taken In Writing

Who among us take the road that is less traveled by? Let’s say in writing, who writes in a genre that most people don’t read? The number is close to none. In Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, which was published in 1916 as the first poem in the collection of Mountain Interval, the speaker must choose between two different roads while knowing that he will be dealing with the result of his choice. This poem embodies the truth that life will always gives us choices. The imagery of the forest road on an autumn morning (yellow wood) introduces the poet’s question, and suggests his ongoing struggle with his innermost thoughts and feelings. The second stanza proposes that the speaker does not wish to follow the crowd; instead he wants to take the path that has not been walked on very much for the road has not been worn out.

Just like in deciding on how we should write our story, the dilemma that most of us faces. It is the predicament of whether we are going to write a story in pure English or a story in Taglish? Are we going to write a story or a lyrical poem? Should we write about vampires and werewolves or is it time for us to focus the limelight in the curious world of nymphs and pixies? Life is full of choices and decision-making dramas. If we prefer writing about trending topics than writing about the important issues which no one bothers to write about, in the end, it’s just ourselves who have the final say. So this means that we are not supposed to blame others with our decisions.

As the famous Pablo Neruda quote put it, "We are free to choose, but you we are not free from the consequences of our choices." The question then is if we made the right decision, and if that decision would have a significant impact in our lives.