What poem does this image remind you of? Can you hear the words of Robert Frost telling you of the choice before him and what factors will influence his decision? The poem I tried to capture with this image is The Road not Taken by Robert Frost.
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
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.
It is too early in the season to have captured a yellow wood, but this image parallels the one described the poem. You probably pictured it differently. In fact no two people have the same mental imagery of the poem. Had I chosen to take a video instead of a photograph, you would have also been able to hear the sounds that I heard while walking the path. Those too would most likely be different from your own aural imagery. I find that my imagination paints a different picture of these paths in a yellow wood each time I read it. Sometimes I see fog because it is so early that the sun has not had a chance to lift it. Sometimes there is an orange glow because the sunrise can be seen through the trees. Certainly then, no photograph can serve to define what Frost saw during his illustrious walk.
Readers experience this poem in many different ways.
This poem is most well known as a celebration of those who have made the less popular choice and benefited from having done so. In the last lines the author looks back and reflects on his decision. There is controversy in the literary world, however, about whether Frost meant the poem literally or whether it was farcical. There is documentation pointing to the fact that he was instead poking fun at Edward Thomas who was a friend and fellow poet. It is said that following many of their walks Thomas was known to complain that they should have taken a different path. Frost may have been making fun of his friend when writing this poem. I’ll admit that I was disappointed the first time I read this. I am a glass-half-full kind of person and I like to look at things through rose-colored glasses. I choose not to think of the poem as Frost’s way of poking fun at a friend. I’m holding on to my interpretation in which he is truly grateful for making the less obvious choice.
A bit if humor…
I decided to go to Kensington Metro Park to look for my Road Not Taken photo since it is only a ten minute drive. I grew up in Milford so I have been on the trails near the nature center at least a hundred times. I remembered several forks in the trails and was sure I would have no problem getting my shot. What I hadn’t remembered when I set out for my early morning walk, is that every fork is conveniently labeled with a sign indicating which trail goes in which direction. I had it in my head that I wanted a very Frostian photo- without modern signage. This meant that I was forced to shoot from odd angles and in strange positions in order to avoid getting them in my pictures. After a couple hours I still did not have the photo that I was hoping for. Several times during my walk I thought to myself, “Maybe I should have taken the other path.” I could hear Frost laughing at me.
Or maybe that was me laughing… we may never know!
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