The Road Not Taken

Today I learned that Robert Frost's famous poem "The Road Not Taken" is not really a wistful look down an untrodden path or a pat on the back for taking the road less traveled. Frost actually presents the two roads as more or less the same, and the choice as more or less random. In fact, in the second stanza he admits that the road "less traveled by," once he passes, will actually be "worn... really about the same" as the first path.The final stanza, with its dramatic sigh, pokes fun at people who, looking back, proclaim that their choices were deliberate, ideal, brave, and the Correct Path -- or the opposite, at people who spend their lives lamenting not taking a different path, when they have no idea where they would have ended up.

My favorite Frost story from the literary criticism linked to above is that, when pressed on the "that has made all the difference" line, Frost said, "Of course, it hasn't. It's just a poem, you know."

There's also a great quote on the subject of choice from William James:
"We stand on a mountain pass in the midst of whirling snow and blinding mist, through which we get glimpses now and then of paths which may be deceptive. If we take the wrong road we shall be dashed to pieces. We do not certainly know whether there is any right one. What must we do? 'Be strong and of a good courage.' Act for the best, hope for the best, and take what comes. . . . If death ends all, we cannot meet death better."

Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken"

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 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 traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.