I recently revisited Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, and my older eyes plumbed new depths intertwined among the lyrical iambic pentameter and wise, twinkly-eyed voice. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, [and] sorry I could not travel both […] I took the one less traveled by, [and] that has made all the difference.” (Foundation, 2020) Lloyd Alexander said that “Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It’s a way of understanding it,” (Lloyd Alexander Quotes, n.d.) and The Road Not Taken shines as proof of Alexander’s insight as brightly as autumn sunshine through yellowed leaves. Bustling through an ever-rushing world, a leisurely walk through arboreal gold may be the final thing on anybody’s mind, or at least anybody’s sunniest fantasy. Since literature, according to Lloyd Alexander, is meant to let us take a non-escapist break from external noise and armor us for life (Lloyd Alexander Quotes, n.d.), this “sunny fantasy” may be exactly what the public needs. The Road Not Taken sugarcoats nothing, instead taking a realistic approach to actions, consequences, and responsibility: “And be one traveler, long I stood[, and] looked down one as far as I could[, to] where it bent in the undergrowth. […] 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 […] hence: […] I took the one less traveled by, [and] that has made all the difference.” (Foundation, 2020) Simultaneously, The Road Not Taken imparts its fundamental lessons on actions, consequences, and responsibility with a steady beat akin to a living heart’s, yet The Road Not Taken’s longer stanzas resemble a slower, calmer beat, inviting the reader to relax and think. Furthermore, beyond the messages of actions, responsibility, and consequences, The Road Not Taken offers the reader courage to learn, try, or explore something new: “Then took the other, as just as fair, [and] having perhaps the better claim, [because] it was grassy and wanted wear; […] And both that morning equally lay [in] leaves no step had trodden black. […] I took the one less traveled by, [and] that has made all the difference.” (Foundation, 2020) Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken is more than a literary feast for the mind; The Road Not Taken is a banquet for the spirit.
Reference List:
Foundation, P. (2020, November 25). The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/) [Text/html]. Poetry Foundation; Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken
Lloyd Alexander Quotes. (n.d.). BrainyQuote. Retrieved November 25, 2020, from https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/lloyd_alexander_879385
Mosaic Ponderings 