The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost. 1874—1963. He is perhaps the most popular and beloved American poet. He wrote of the character, people, and landscape of New England.

I first read this poem I cant remember when ~ maybe at Advanced English class in my prepatory semester ~ but the poem has remained at the back of my mind somewhere ever since. I came across it again when the boys had to read the poem in their upper secondary literature class. The poem goes as such ~

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.

The poem reminds me how our life is shaped by the choices that we make today. And insya'allah we'll look back and say, yes that decision I made had made all the difference that matters in life.

ps ~ Frost had quit from Harvard. Seems like many of the successful people were compelled to make certain sacrifices in pursuit of inner personal aspirations.

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