Poetry Wednesday
In recent months, three different people have asked me some variation of the question “is this all there is to life?” I gave three variations of sarcastic answers, but the truth is I have long, unbearable days where I wonder the same thing. Well, not exactly the same. The best thing about having the worst job I could have on earth, is knowing this is not how my story ends; unless, I die of boredom (and yes, I googled the possibility and google says it’s unlikely.) But I do wonder if it’s too late for greatness. Like Dorothy Dandridge greatness. Like Hillary Clinton great. Like “right this way, Mrs. Summers-Efron the President is waiting,” awesome fucking life? And so, in that vein, I have chosen today’s poem:
After two straight weeks of African-American poets, we come to the first poem I learned when I got to prep school. It spoke to me then, a poor little black girl in a fancy 26-acre private school with a 96% white student body and no black teachers. I had left everything I ever knew, to take a school bus an hour and 15 minutes, both ways, to this place. Those first months were miserable ones and I always wondered if I made the right choice. But right or wrong, it was that choice, and every choice of things done and undone since that has led me to where I am now. Wait a minute…but I hate where I am now. Fuck. 
Enjoy!
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; 5
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, 10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15
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. 20
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:22 am
“…I always wondered if I made the right choice. But right or wrong, it was that choice, and every choice of things done and undone since that has led me to where I am now.” (I don’t know how to get all fancy and italicize this quote of you in a comment.)
I have been saying basically the same thing for a while now…and finally, maybe, I’m getting to a place that I don’t hate. It’s not the end all be all, but through all the mistakes and missteps I can’t imagine my life being any other way. Well except for if I’d won the lottery years ago and was living on my private islands. So maybe I shoulda bought that ticket but other than that, I don’t lament anything, I just accept that that was the choice I made and trust that I am on the right path, whether it’s the road less travelled or the same one that all these other annoying douchebags are on too.
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:38 am
yeah, I think that’s where i basically come out too. Like maybe I could’ve been less lazy and more focussed on work, but then I wouldn’t have had time to do the things that bring me much joy now. There’s an old simpsons episode where bart ends up in hell, but the devil realizes he’s taken bart too soon, so he lets him go back and says see you in forty years and bart’s all “wait, is there a way i can avoid coming back here?” and the devil is like “yeah, but you wouldn’t like it.” and bart’s like “youre probably right, okay, see you later.”
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:11 am
The poem is often misinterpreted as some sort of ode to being unique or taking the tougher road. What it’s really about is taking a road that’s just the exact same as the other and then “years hence” just sitting around like an old crank sighing with a little regret while misremembering just enough that the road he took was perhaps a little more unique, a little less traveled by so as to justify his path. (Seriously, it’s like people TOTALLY go blind when they get to these lines: “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)
But what I’m really trying to say is you could totally take Robert Frost.
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:46 am
All else being equal, though, I’d just as soon take the road with the least traffic, assuming there actually is a road with the least traffic. Sometimes there isn’t.
September 2nd, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I love Robert Frost, but I hate this poem. I was going to say the same thing as Ken, how I hate how the poem has been misread by high school students for years.
Anyhoo, I think I’m not there yet, where I have come to terms with my decisions. I want to have the time machine to travel and tell my young self what I know about life.
However, I love poetry Wednesdays!
September 2nd, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Well, I think the poem is kind of about the fact that it does make a difference what road you take, but that there’s not really a better road or worser road, just different roads, to which we later ascribe meaning.
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:01 pm
I also recall my high school AP English teacher, the forever beloved Ms. Kyl (and the reason I became an English major), saying that Robert Frost had appeared on the Tonight Show and was asked by the host (probably Jack Paar at that time), about the deep existential meaning of “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”. According to Ms. Kyl, Frost hollered: “I was RIDING MY HORSE, it was SNOWING, I stopped to look at a FARMHOUSE! That’s the meaning!”
Maybe a road is just a road.
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Hahahaha that story abt frost on the tonight show is awesome
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Here’s my poetry for today: http://dealbreaker.com/2009/08/post-114.php
NSFW!
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Hmm, let’s try again.
Here’s my addition to poetry wednesday. NSFW!
http://dealbreaker.com/2009/08/post-114.php