Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken Thread poster: Aurora Humarán (X)
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Aurora Humarán (X) Argentina Local time: 16:13 English to Spanish + ...
This poem is said to be one of Robert Frost´s lesser known poems. I dedicate it to those who always choose less traveled by roads...
Should I have done this instead of that?
Sigh...and irony. Questioning ones´ actions. I love it...so here it goes, in case you have never read it. Have a nice week-end! Aurora
Background... See more This poem is said to be one of Robert Frost´s lesser known poems. I dedicate it to those who always choose less traveled by roads...
Should I have done this instead of that?
Sigh...and irony. Questioning ones´ actions. I love it...so here it goes, in case you have never read it. Have a nice week-end! Aurora
Background
The inspiration for it (The Road Not Taken) came from Frost’s amusement over a familiar mannerism of his closest friend in England, Edward Thomas. While living in Gloucestershire in 1914, Frost frequently took long walks with Thomas through the countryside. Repeatedly Thomas would choose a route which might enable him to show his American friend a rare plant or a special vista; but it often happened that before the end of such a walk Thomas would regret the choice he had made and would sigh over what he might have shown Frost if they had taken a \"better\" direction. More than once, on such occasions, the New Englander had teased his Welsh-English friend for those wasted regrets. Disciplined by the austere biblical notion that a man, having put his hand to the plow, should not look back, Frost found something quaintly romantic in sighing over what might have been. Such a course of action was a road never taken by Frost, a road he had been taught to avoid. In a reminiscent mood, not very long after his return to America as a successful, newly discovered poet, Frost pretended to \"carry himself\" in the manner of Edward Thomas just long enough to write \"The Road Not Taken\". Immediately, he sent a manuscript copy of the poem to Thomas, without comment, and yet with the expectation that his friend would notice how the poem pivots ironically on the un-Frostian phase, \"I shall be telling this with a sigh\". As it turned out Frost’s expectations were disappointed. Thomas missed the gentle jest because the irony had been handled too slyly, too subtly.
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 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.
Robert Frost
[ This Message was edited by: on 2002-08-24 06:51 ] ▲ Collapse | | |
Read it about 25 years ago | Aug 23, 2002 |
and I clearly remember the less prosaic explanations presented by our English professor...
Thanks, Aurora, and yes, Frost\'s poem still stands.
[addsig] | | |
nuvo Indonesia Local time: 02:13 English to Indonesian + ... Thank for your interpetation | Aug 23, 2002 |
I loved and still love this poem very much. [addsig] | | |
Aurora Humarán (X) Argentina Local time: 16:13 English to Spanish + ... TOPIC STARTER
The interpretation is not mine.
Mine is only the \"humble\" introduction.
Cheers from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Aurora | |
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MikeGarcia Spain Local time: 21:13 English to Spanish + ... In memoriam Message to Aurorah | Aug 23, 2002 |
Auh, did you know that Robert Frost was one of Borges\' preferred english poets, and this poem in particular was translated by Borges into spanish ? You have the virtue of exciting the retrospective insight instint in me, my dear. Thank you for that.
[addsig] | | |
Zhoudan Local time: 03:13 English to Chinese + ... Thank you, Aurora! | Aug 23, 2002 |
Forst is my favorite English poet. Thank you for the wonderful interpretation.
Zhou Dan | | |