Blog Entry 13: Frost "The Road Not Taken"

Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" has got to be the most-written-about poem in ENGL 104. I imagine it resonates particularly with Americans because it seems to be about individuality, that you've got to take a road different from the one other people would take. I'm all for individuality, but sometimes I wonder if we don't stereotype it in the way that young people declare their individuality through the same clothing that all other young people are wearing. Is it good to be unique in an acceptable way, or is it good to be unique in a really weird way that others won't understand? To be honest, I don't think we're as individual or as tolerant of individuality as we'd like to think.

Also, I don't think this poem is really about individuality, at least not in the puffed up way of "I'm going to be different from everyone else!" Here's why: whenever people try to analyze this poem, they spend a lot of time on the idea that the road taken "was grassy and wanted wear" (line 8), which suggests few people have taken it. But, then, later in the poem, the persona takes back the idea that there was a significant difference between the roads: "the passing there/Had worn them really about the same" (lines 9-10). So, if the roads are "worn [. . .] about the same," the persona can't really tell the difference between them in terms of prior travel. This retraction is just A LINE BELOW the line that everyone likes to focus on. Why doesn't anyone see it? I don't think we want to see it because we want to read this poem in the stereotypical American way. Also, the ending goes back to the "less traveled by" idea (line 19), which creates a more lasting impression.

So, why did Frost even include the retraction? I feel as if what's important about the road is that the PERSONA has not traveled by it. True, he hasn't yet traveled either road, but when he picks a new road, it's less important that it's less traveled by others than that it has never been traveled by him. So, this poem is more about accepting the challenge of change than it is about being stereotypically unique.