In Pursuit of Poetry

March 3 - Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken

March 3, 2018
Another book I picked up not too long ago is Jill Bialosky’s memoir Poetry Will Save Your Life. In essence she is writing about the poems that have gotten her through various points in her life. She starts out with Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken and I happen to really like that poem....

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, 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 far 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 traveller by,
And that has made all the difference.

I found it interesting that for Jill Bailosky, this poem had various meanings for her - one as a child of nine first hearing it and then later as an adult. For me, I have always loved the final three lines.... for to me, I felt he took the more unconventional path - the one creative types choose. The one less travelled because the person needs to break new ground for themselves. I have always been drawn to those pictures of trails through a wood - this poem and those pictures are linked for me. Tied together in a creative place, one that lets the person embark on a journey of not knowing where you will end up, but one that will always bring adventure and beauty around ever curve and bend.
Life is not easy, there are lots of twists and turns, but I find that imagining them in such a way, with light filtering through the leaves, I am able to move forward. There will always be dark nights without the moon, and rain and storms, but there will also be sunrises and sunsets. There will be hills and valleys, but that is life. Sometimes we walk alone, sometimes we have company, sometimes we even have to carry a load..... but this is life and it is the way we have chosen. Everyone makes choices and this is my way.
So I would have to say this poem is one of my touch points as well.
Thank you Robert Frost for your imagery and your vision.

Jill Bailosky also points out in her poetry memoir, that "poems are made from the lives lived, borne out of experience and shaped by solitary thought." "A poem in its condensed form casts its own light on the ways in which we live in the world." In writing them she feels "that they were an act of generosity and devotion to other human beings, to other readers." I have only just begun this book, but I feel I will get a lot of good incite into a variety of poems as I craft my own poetry blog.

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