I hate bringing this up here but, the more awareness and visibility we can get, the better. The situation in Colombia is dire. I encourage you to research for yourselves. I plead with you for your awareness and solidarity. It would also be of great help if we could get producers abroad to talk about this. Thank you. (I'm editing this as I re-read it. Sorry about that. I wrote it in haste...)
@@thanksforreading33 Colombia. British and Australian media tend to write it as Columbia, but I digress... There's been an ongoing series of protests that have been countered with police and military violence. Many have died, many have disappeared. I really need you, rather than having me reporting on this, to research and talk about this.
Robert Frost wrote “The Road Not Taken” as a joke for a friend, the poet Edward Thomas. When they went walking together, Thomas was chronically indecisive about which road they ought to take and-in retrospect-often lamented that they should, in fact, have taken the other one.
Yep that's what I read too. Also he was a firm believer in the right to roam ( which in Scotland we enforce) and got very angry with a farmer for blocking a path. When to the farmers house and even through the farmer put a shot-gun in Robert's face he stood his ground and told him off. What a guy!
And the misinterpretations started super early after "Two Roads" was published. Even at the time Frost was like, [paraphrasing] "Y'all, it ain't that deep".
I remember it sticking out to me in highschool that this poem isn't positive. It's not negative, either. It's looking back and wondering 'what if?' The common interpretation neglects the ambiguity of the piece.
Yeah! I always thought it was a reflection of decision making. You have to create the reason for justifying your choice, and that the consequences of the choice shape who you are. And you’re left to wonder what would have happened if you decided differently. I thought it was a great metaphor for the process.
I never heard that poem, english isnt my first language and we never had this poem in our english lessons. When I watched the video, about halfway through where the poem reading ended, I thought that this poem is about a "what if" situation.
" Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back." I agree. He never said that one road is better than the other. I have always felt like there is this longing and lonely feeling when you make a major decision in life. If you take on particular road, then the other road is lost to you as a person. The stories that could have been and the experiences there. And even if you came back and took the other road, it would still not be the same.
Agree about the road not taken - also the idea of post rationalization she makes is interesting but it takes it a little too far - not much evidence for it & it makes sense only in contrast to the common misinterpretation
Frost wrote this poem to give his friend a good ribbing for being so indecisive... And the whole world COMPLETELY lost their minds with misinterpretation lol
More accurately they misapplied a more common sentiment, which they all agreed upon, to a poem that wasn't really expressing that. It simply touched off something everyone feels and thinks about despite the poem. There's no right or wrong, and Frost isn't the bible (the bible isn't the bible either in my book). Many decisive people who live with no regrets are stupid. So there's that.
Well honestly..thata the thing about art... everyone can have their own interpretation and can enjoy stuff I'm their own way...it might have been made as a "joke"...but it really touched and made sense to other people...That is exactly what gave the poem the popularity... Also the fact that the readers are more insightful about the poem than Frost himself... gives an idea about how good his readers word.. Nevertheless I like frost..
@@simrannisha8793 Came here to say that. The same thing can mean different things to different folks. It's always nice to know what the artist meant to say with it, the original meaning, but it's also nice to see different interpretations and meanings.
Honestly, when you broke it down slowly it feels like he's telling a story of regret. He kept thinking about the other path even after making the choice, and the full last paragraph feels like he's regretting the decision
Yeah, but it sorta says a lot about the narrator. That they're feeling regrets, and needing to justify to themselves a choice of footpath. Surely to live life to the fullest, one should not waste mental energy panicking over minor stuff.
There's the thing, the narrative structure tacitly also tells us that he'd have felt the same regardless of the path taken and is fully aware of that fact.
I'm not sure I get pure regret from it, but something in that realm at least. The speaker being wistful, perhaps? It's easy to think back (or think forward on how you're going to think back) and examine your arbitrary choices and on how different things might have been if you went the other way. If you applied to that other school, if you stayed living at home instead of moving out, if you dated another person, if you relocated to another job instead of staying where you are...
As someone who had to choose between two things I was passionate about to focus on, I get it, though. Even if you're happy with the decision, you always wonder about the other.
when we analyzed this in school, I went and looked at the guy's wikipedia page and it said that he wrote this as a satire and sent it to his friend who inspired it. and that the friend took it seriously and enlisted in the war and died. it was so sad
"When it comes to analyzing literature a lot of us were taught that there's a right answer, and then when we escape the public school system... we swing to the other side of the spectrum and think that there are no right answers, and that any and every interpretation of a text is equally valid." Thank you so much for putting this into words! People need to find a middle ground between these two extremes.
I’ll never stop being darkly amused when the most mainstream interpretation of a work of fiction is the one that the work of fiction itself mocks people for making.
@@Alice-gr1kb "Pulling oneself up by their bootstraps" used to be a phrase to describe someone absurdly trying to accomplish a task that is impossible to do alone. You imagine someone trying to get over a fence or something by pulling at their boots to lift themselves up and over the fence. Clearly impossible and absurd.
I am reminded of a Kierkegaard quote, from memory: "Get married, and you'll regret it. Don't get married, and you'll regret that too." It's from Either/Or. It's about having to choose and having to live with the consequences of your choices. Making the choice to go down one road or the other might have made all the difference. But which difference? We'll never know.
@@grmpEqweer Kierkegaard is, in general, not right. Half the time, he's even wrong. He was under the impression that life is pain, and that the only way to escape that pain, was in the afterlife by devotion to god. It was very much a defeatist view point. "Yeah well, the elite might have it good, but I'll show them all... 'cause this book says that, if I work hard and accept my misery in life, then once we're dead, I'll be the greater man! Ha!"
@@tokeivo Kierkegaard is the kind of philosopher I read as someone "musing poetically about life", so to speak. It's been a while since I read him, and I haven't read all that he's written. I will not argue that Kierkegaard was right about everything or that his words should be taken as "gospel". However, I think he often has insightful, quotable aphorisms about life that have some merit. However, I regard his work as to a large extent expressions of opinion, value judgments, whose truth value is moot. Just like whether regarding life as pain or it being a defeatist viewpoint is not really about the truth or falsity of an outlook, but rather if you find it palatable or relatable.
@@tokeivo no philosopher is right on everything, because it would be a logical contradiction if they were, taking into account how much they trashed each other. Hell, even Wittgenstein argues with *himself* at some point. What we can, and should do, is take the parts were they make the most sense and ignore the parts that don't
I want to say that the “road less traveled” could quite litteraly mean mean that “the road less explored/ thought apon” because he keeps thinking about the other path. It made a “difference” but that difference was a neither good nor bad difference, and could mean that he pondered so much on the other option, he could just be ignoreing what he has now instead of looking at the yellow woods around him and taking on his choice.
I agree. The last stanza can be delivered in either an upbeat or a regretful manner. It's left completely to interpretation, which, given the theme, is presumably the intent?
This is similar to my interpretation. The speaker looks at the decision wondering what would've been different. They have no reason to believe one is better or worse, but they haven't seen the other path and so it is unknown. (Possibly forever, if the path is never revisited) How I read it, neither satisfaction nor regret are experienced by the speaker. Where they aren't confident in either decision is uncomfortable, and they reflect on that. Except I didn't pick up that he was ignoring where he is, just thinking about where he could be.
Robert Frost is the most terrifying writer of modern literature. I can"t think of one poem I've read of his that makes me happy, though all have made me a better man.
@@watertommyz That seems like the sort of incredibly broad statement that pretty much always turns out wrong. Because (of course!) it's diminishing a complex and nuanced subject. As if you said "The sky is always blue", or maybe "all people are like myself, essentially". A poem is a statement made from the heart, using the writer's own experiences and craft to concentrate language into a particular form. If you think most poems are unhappy, what do you think about other people?
@@BlackCover95Well, he already did it as much as it could be done. This poem, 'Stopping by the Woods...", "Design", "Mending Wall"... "Design" and "The Oven Bird" in particular. Just absolutely deleterious to one's sense of self/uniqueness.
This poem is like me reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book with four fingers stuck in the pages so I can go back to past choices and read other paths. That's what the speaker wants to do but can't.
@@ZahnZee The great irony given the thesis of this video is that the people who 'misinterpret' the poem focus on the road less traveled which is the road he took. While Frost focuses more on the road not taken.
i thought the same thing, regardless of the correct/incorrect title, my high school teacher actually taught us the correct meaning back in the day [no i am not a boomer, im a xennial], so i thought it was going to be something juicier about the poem itself not existing, meh..
I too, hadn't ever heard the full poem and I find the actual message a lot more relatable. Pick one and constantly wonder about the other. The path I took made all the difference, but it's a moot point; the difference is lost in a comparison I can't make because I picked a path and can't go back.
This is basically the interpretation that Robert Frost intended for his excessively indecisive friend. It was kind of a jab and a joke to his friend who would constantly worry about what the other "path" could lead to and which would be more right while constantly using this logic to regret making the decision he made when he did make a decision.
Me and a friend came to the conclusion that this poem was an exercise in self justification, the teacher just about failed us on the spot, good to see we aren't the only ones who see this poem differently.
wha?? that's so irritating. As if your job as a teacher isn't to encourage different points of view and how different experiences inform your interpretation of a text. I hope that you didn't get marked down on an assessment :((
"...and so the poem says that you should choose your own path, even if most people don't agree with it." "Miss, I dont agree with your interpretation" "Well, you're wrong. It's the common interpretation so it must be right!" Do these people listen to themselves?
This is my favourite poem for this very reason. It’s a great example of how art is such a personal experience to the individual. The meaning of this poem can be taken so many ways. It was written to playfully tease his hiking friend about his indecisiveness, but it actually upset his friend as he thought he was mocking him. Confident that the playful undertones were obvious, he read it to a class of students who, much to Frosts surprise, found it a deep and profound stance on individualism! Here’s another great example of a different interpretation. I’ve heard so many different thought provoking takes on this poem, it feels like you can view this through 100 of different lenses and find new meaning, and rarely the one it was intended to have!
Just for the first line... Art was always supposed to be left for people's expectations... It was/is the public School which instils right from wrong idea among students..
I've long agreed with this interpretation. I think Frost was trying to point out our tendency to convince ourselves that our choices have more weight and meaning than they actually do.
I appreciate you stating the importance of the text in poetry analysis. In high school, I always struggled to understand how the teachers got their interpretations from the text, and grew to really hate poetry as a result. But these videos are starting to turn things around for me.
I could easily regurgitate the answer the "correct" answer if that's what they want, but they wanted us to synthesize said answer ourselves, without telling us the answer. "Why could X mean Y" is a perfectly reasonable argumentative exercise and I think there would be value in an assignment like that. I remember the easiest A I ever got on an essay was just from reading the cliff's notes, since they plainly tell you the conventional answers regarding meaning. Even if I argued the "correct" answer just as poorly as I would have if I had synthesized one on my own, it seems like the grade mostly depended on stating the correct conclusion. Though to be fair, that was probably the best real-world lesson I was accidentally taught: people often don't care how you reached your conclusion, only that you reached the one that they agree with.
My answer to every tiresome literary analysis is this poem: Introduction to Poetry By Billy Collins I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author’s name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.
yeah i know right! my english teacher insisted the red wheelbarrow poem was about how "the quality of life depends on the details" but like i don't get it where do you get that from the text it sounds very fancy and all but how ??? it's literally just vaguely praising some wheelbarrow near some chickens
It’s all bull to justify teaching positions in education. I never interpreted things the “correct” way in high school and college and was “educated” out of such thoughts and interpretations. Or more to the point, I learned to just go along with the prof’s interpretation in order to pass the class. As the movie says, “They don’t have meetings about rainbows.”
The Gritty Hollywood Reboot™️ of this poem is that he travels back in time to travel the road again. Kills his alternative self to become to Path-More-Tavelled-By man. And then in the end truly learns that it never mattered in the first place. *Christopher Nolan dark bwwooonnng of dramatic tension*
It’s a poem about lying to yourself and everyone ignores the lying part and goes yes. I do this too. I can’t escape the feeling that it’s somehow ironic that everyone takes it at face value and then lies to themselves the same way the poem is sort of poking fun at in its own way.
I can't recall where I heard it, but I've heard another analysis of this poem that reads it as sarcastic. And, outside of the text, cites the author's relationship with one of his contemporaries who would frame every minuscule thing as very deep and profound. That this poem was mocking his friend for being so pretentious.
@Electro_blob 2 This was the other analysis I was referring to. th-cam.com/video/sH3Y_-Hxh_Q/w-d-xo.html I am not a scholar myself so I cannot speak to its veracity, except to say that I've found the channel to be trustworthy and reliable in the past. And there are sources in the video description for verification.
@Electro_blob 2 Everyone is welcome to their interpretation, but the most literal reading of the poem is "There was a fork in the road. Both ways were nearly the same. When I think about it later, I'll say the one I chose was better." To put it another way: Two interpretations diverged in a comment section, and sadly I could not espouse them both and still be of one mind. Long I sat and watched the first until the end to where its conclusion waited valid. Then took the other just as reasoned well, and having perhaps the clearer truth for fewer came to find it as their own; Though as for that the viewers there had commented perhaps as many times to say the other had the view that they would like to hold. But on this afternoon I now have found. That neither view has proved itself the better. And thought that mine perhaps one day may change, though, knowing how I trend, set in my ways, I doubted ever that I'd find it so. I shall respond another time with a sigh as I have done in threads so many times before. Two interpretations diverged in a comment section and I - I agreed with the one less well accepted societally, And that has made all the difference
We shall be sharing this with glee, Somewhere on TH-cam, ages hence: Two takes diverged in analysis, and Zoe- She takes the take less taken, And that has made all the difference.
two takes diverged in analysis and sorry i could not argue both and be one reader, long i thought and sought out textual proof where i could to where it collapsed under baseless claims
hey! don't let the truth get in the way of a good story (i was going to google that phrase because now i'm afraid i've got the meaning wrong.. but.. i won't let the truth get in the way...)
Almost. It's more like if Jeff Bezos said "I chose to start a company in my garage, INSTEAD OF working for a corporation...and that made all the difference." OF COURSE a decision like that will set your life in one direction vs. another, but trying your luck at being an inventor/entrepreneur vs. seeking a steady paycheck is hardly a road less traveled. Many, many, many people at some point try and fail at starting a business. And if they didn't fail, most all those people would stay on that road -- it's a road less traveled by only if we discount all the people who got eaten along the path (and then you're point about his inheritance is relevant).
It also bears mentioning that Robert Frost wrote this poem to poke fun at an indecisive friend, who ALSO got the wrong message, and Frost had to walk him through the text of the poem to explain the joke to him.
I've always thought that what the poem is really saying is that seemingly insignificant, spontaneous decisions will change the course of your life- for the better or for worse. And that you'd never know what your life could have been if you had chosen the other path instead.
I'm inclined to think that the real magic of art happens in the mind and heart of whoever experiences it. We can discuss interpretations and share experiences, but everyone has their own experience and there's no right or wrong in that. As an artist I weave the fabric, but I don't get to decide what it is used for or if it has any use at all. If it evokes an experience that goes beyond my intention and gives a canvas for someone else to paint their emotions, it's all good!
I always thought that poem was about decision making and how hard it is. because we don’t know what would have happened if we had chose the other, We will never know if we made the right decision or if the other was better. It’s about the regret of not being able to see them both through.
This sounds pretty good to me. I think humans have this idea that road less taken is somehow special, or better. I remember being taught it in church when I was little etc. I don't know where it comes from but we ascribe it to so many texts, when I think the reality is that the idea came first and then our interpretation of texts, not the other way around.
Reminds me of that song "Everybodys free(to wear sunscreen)" "Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old-- and when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders"
I always thought Frost was using the poyum as a metaphor for life. At childhood the traveler sees a world unhampered. As an adult they have to make a hard choice between no right answer. At the end where the traveler is looking back from elderly age they tell the lies that suit thier narrative. I feel as though Frost was trying to both comfort and warn. The traveler gives us the courage to choose but also not to listen to people whom say they have a truth.
@@crcker3841 In English, I presume? A literary method of communicating ideas and thoughts within a case limit form. An English word that you may know is poem. Although the two sound similar, they come from two different linguistic histories. Poyum is Scots.
To me this poem is about our life choices... When we're young we make choices as best we can, but even a good choice may have a bad outcome, and we'll never know where other choices might have taken us. It's hard not to feel some regret. We know our choices matter, but we can never know how things might have been different. This poem perfectly expresses this to me ❤️
Well my interpretation is a bit dark, "All the difference" never imply its something good, by taking the path less travelled the traveller make a grave mistake, just like when you went against unity, you become an outcast
I feel like this poem is just about the feeling we get when we think about what could have happened if we made a different decision. Not necessarily an emotion as strong as regret, but a longing to see what we missed out on or were lucky enough to avoid by making the choices that we did.
I interpret the last stansa slightly differently. Since it's looking forward to what he'll tell people in the future, I took it to mean that he was forcing himself to justify the decision in the moment even if it wasn't true.
I've always interpreted this poem as being two identical choices, that, regardless of the outcome, would have mattered: the choice always has an alternative, but the speaker is cognizant of the moral that we are one person, and only walk each path once.
I memorized this poem in the 7th grade and can still recite it from memory to this day, 37 years later. Shout out to Mr. Cole at Skyway Middle School who introduced me to poetry. I still compose it and love to read it to this day.
Yeah, I don't know how so many people miss it. Like, ever since sixth grade I'd get into arguments with my english teachers because I actually read the bit about the paths being worn the same
Grace Nakimura Ah, yes everyone did clap. Then after my standing ovation, we all talked about how kids aren’t braindead, unlike how everyone on the internet wants to pretend they are. I knew full well when I commented this that it would come off as pompous, but it’s really just me wondering how we twisted the meaning so much, when even a not particularly bright kid, like I was, could figure it out
Is this a thing? Do English teachers in your country regularly try to teach pupils that their interpretations of subjective art is wrong? They didn't do that where I went to school (UK).
@@robokill387 Sadly in the US art is often taught as a right/wrong subject just like anything other 'harder' subject (harder as in hard science). The reason for this is that the American public school system is built entirely around standardized testing and you can't have a standardized test for somethings which doesn't have 'correct' answers.
To me this poem is pretty clearly a dig at the self justification you're talking about. He's saying "in the future I will make up some pithy aphorism about how my life is great now because I took a bold and purposeful choice, and only I will know that that is a big lie I tell to make myself look like a brave and clever person". It's relatable because we all do that.
I always saw this poem as an “all roads lead to home” kind of meaning. Something like how one decision (like what path to take while on a stroll) won’t make a big impact on your life.
Here's what I get from that poem: At some point in our lives, we all look back at something we did or didn't do, and say, "What if?" We make decisions because they seem right at the time, but often we regret them, and even if we don't, we wonder if things would have been better had we made a different decision. We can't go back and change our decision, no matter how much we'd like to, and so we are where we are, for better or for worse.
@@nicolab2075 it's not even about justifying the decision in hindsight, it's about the speaker believing that in the future he will assign importance to the decision, even though at the time he made it, it appeared inconsequential. I think you're right that it can't be about regret, because he couldn't possibly know whether or not, years in the future, he will regret the decision.
Great video Zoe! I love this different style of video (I love the rest of your videos too). The story of this poem is also very interesting, apparently Robert Frost wrote this for a friend, mocking his indecisiveness and the over importance he gave to small decisions
What I got when I read it in high school was that sometimes you have to make arbitrary choices that have big impact in our lives and it might feel like you are missing out on whatever choice you aren’t taking, but that’s ok. I see “that made all the difference at the end” after all the hesitation as the author looking back and seeing the road not with regret but with appreciation cause it got him to wherever he is today. For me the message is: At the end what’s important is not which road you take, but that you keep going forward, so dont let the fear of missing out control you.
Also I don’t think thats the TRUE interpretation, I just thought it might be interesting to see a similar view as the one in the video but a little more positive
Great analysis. I hadn’t read this poem in over a decade and enjoyed rediscovering it with you. Your interpretation is simultaneously scary and comforting. Scary in that it challenges the concept of destiny; that the narratives we retrospectively author for ourselves in order to feel like things were “meant to be” is just a balm for creeping feelings of nihilism. Comforting in that it encourages acceptance for your decisions; it highlights the futility of regrets, as you put it: “sometimes you just make a decision and you have to live with it”. Love it!
I was trying to choose between two Robert Frost video essays to watch on my TH-cam homepage and the thumbnails were both pretty good. Actually yours was better so I clicked on it and the algorithm spirited the other one away. I'll probably tweet about this later like "wtf" but I decided to watch your video with the better thumbnail and holy smokes... it changed everything.
I remember when we went over this poem in my Ap Lit class, I learned the more true interpretation and I related to it so much more: decision, regret, always wondering what could've been, not wanting to miss out on either choice, wondering how much it impacted your life. It made me appreciate Robert Frost a lot more
I feel like he’s saying the consequences of the meaningless choice he made, made the choice meaningful. We’re always curious about what would have happened had we made a different choice and, in a sense, all choices are meaningful.
@@zoe_bee As a much older student (studied this poem in school circa 1990), yours is the interpretation I was taught. It wasn't until just now that I learned that the other existed or that it was more prevalent. I have always had an appreciation for that English teacher anyway, as she did not teach Romeo and Juliet as a love story, but as two teenagers who gave up their own lives (and those of others) for a three day lack of impulse control. Thank you for helping me to appreciate her again, 3+ decades later. Now I want to go back and rewatch Dead Poet's Society to see if this was the message Robin Williams presented and I just missed it completely...
I really like this interpretation! It aligns with why I find it so needling when people say "everything happens for a reason" or "you'll end up wherever you're meant to" or "when one door closes, another will open" and things like that. Life is a series of millions of choices with no real "right" or "wrong" decision, but sometimes even a small decision that seems fairly equal to another decision might lead you down a very different path. That doesn't make one better than the other! But there's no higher power or higher purpose dictating our life, it's our own choices and experiences and reactions. A lot of the time, there really isn't a "reason" for something happening other than a fairly arbitrary decision made by you or someone else. You aren't "meant to" have a particular life path, and opening doors is driven by... well, again, the decisions of yourself and those around you.
I always felt he walked back the way he came, as opposed to taking either of the two paths in front of him There isn’t much textual evidence for this, but it just fits in best with my personal life experience, and I guess it could be an explanation for why he was able to find a difference in the particular path he took
This poem was my English final in high school. I didn't know it beforehand (being Italian I only knew the poets we'd covered in class) and of course went with the popular face-level reading. I remember going back home, googling it and smacking myself in the forehead when I read it was actually supposed to be irony. Luckily, it seems, my exam commission hadn't picked up on the irony either, because I got a full mark.
I think people only 'misinterpret' this poem because some of its lines are usually taken out of context for inspirational quotes. It's not in itself trying to be tricky or conceal its regretful meaning, and neither is the meaning hard to glean because the text is overstylized. Rather, it's written in a very straightforward and unadorned way. The lines "I kept the first for another day!" and "I shall be telling this with a sigh" are very easy to understand, as far as poetic language goes, and make a positive reading of this poem patently incorrect.
“…some of its lines are usually taken out of context for inspirational quotes…” That was sort of my impression, too. People _want_ the interpretation to be “Do your own thing! Follow the less-traveled path” and basically ignore a textual analysis, just relying on the last lines. It’s not even a misanalysis-it’s more like a non-analysis.
I love this poem, and this interpretation is great! I interpret the poem as you choose the paths in life that make sense to you, but often we end up wondering what could have been. You can be very content with your choice, but later on the mind loves to wander. The brain postulates with an almost wanderlust, but in the end it's not the path we imagined that got us where we are, rather it's the path we arbitrarily chose that made us end up where we are.
Once I started working in my current profession, this poem always felt like a metaphor for that time in early adulthood when you are actually taking the first steps toward what you want to do "when you grow up." There are so many moments when you make a choice that will point you in a certain direction. Each choice seems to make all the difference in the world. And while you might be choosing the path you think is different, unique, well trodden, etc., it turns out many of the paths are very similar. And, yet, it is unlikely you will ever be in the position to make that same choice again. I have always hated the common interpretation of poem, because it is so overly dramatic. The paths, as described, are both very fine paths...it's not like the "one less traveled" is muddy and hard to navigate.
I would add to the poem. "walk the path you want, discovered or not. Walk, but carry a pen , a paper. Write the path, for someone to traverse Thru the same , and then they will make The same for the next kin behind them. Stay put, stay brave. Those dark avenues will be filled by Mark of your boot."
I love your interpretation and your method of getting to it! "When it comes to analyzing literature a lot of us were taught that there's a right answer, and then when we escape the public school system... we swing to the other side of the spectrum and think that there are no right answers, and that any and every interpretation of a text is equally valid." I agree. As an English teacher I often have to guide discussions depending on the class they happen in because some groups get very puzzled if presented with many interpretations and I honestly feel that it's down to literacy. At that point it's helpful to actually have an anchor point around which to guide discussions rather than floating around in a sea of interpretations, since those students' minds haven't matured enough to be able to sift through all the different options. A more able group, however, would LOVE and thrive in this sea of interpretations and have in-depth debates about it. That's when the anchor point isn't as necessary and you can let the students go. The hope is that, eventually, the students which need the anchoring scaffold will be able to actually go ahead and dip their toes in the sea of possibilities ^_^
I never got the "common interpretation," I just cant think of it as being that the speaker somehow made a perfect decision, my thoughts were always that he had to have regretted the decision, that's why he looks back, imagining having taken the other, greener path, a very "the grass is always greener" (literally) message.
This was really well done! I myself am horrendously bad at interpreting literature, so it's always interesting to see people pick it apart into something deeper.
Yes - a commentary on the narratives we all create about our own lives. It's one of the things that always stands out when I read an autobiography - the bit where they basically go "well I was always good at x / loved x as a kid" where x is the thing they became famous for. But the reality is they have re-enforced the memories/feeling about that particular thing after the fact - essentially, a form of hindsight that imposes more structure and decision making than there probably ever actually was. The sports-person was probably good at / loved lots of sports, but the one they ended up having a successful career in is the ones whose associated memories get cherry picked later to re-inforce / impose a narrative to their life.
This makes me think about an article I read that did a poll on the most common regrets of dying patients in a hospital, and the top two were "working too hard not making time for my family" and "not chasing my dreams", the article was some inspirational piece about not leaving regrets behind, but my takeaway was that the people who chased their dreams couldn't have time fore their family, and the people who did, didn't have time to chase their dreams. This is what the poem reads to me, we would all like to take both paths and see which one is better, but we only have one shot and we only have so much time in life. At the end of our short journey, we will always have regretted and wandered "what ifs" about the path we didn't take, because no humans are ever truly satisfied with their choices, especially at a time where you have no chance to make another.
Great analysis! Three times he tells us that the paths were really the same. Then he tells us that, later, HE WILL SAY that he chose the road less travelled by, when he really didn’t. He admits that he will romanticize the decision and make it seem more of a virtuous decision, when it was really a totally random one. There are three give aways... 1) Frost says, “I will say...” not “I will think...” 2) The sigh, and 3) the stutter “I - I...” These three gives it away that he admits his tale will just be a dramatic misrepresentation, and less than honest, when recounting the story years from now. And, the icing on the cake is the poem’s title... it gives away the true lament and potential wondering or regret, because he is really thinking about the other ROAD NOT TAKEN. He admits that, in the future, he will try to convince himself that he chose the right path long ago. There is a reason why it is not titled, “The Road Less Travelled By.”
I've always loved this poem. My interpretation was always pretty close to yours, but I pictured the speaker being self-aware of how his future self would elaborate on the tale, assigning importance and meaning to his arbitrary decision.
I've had this poem memorized for years for the sole purpose of convincing people that it is not about life decisions but a single intimate encounter Frost had and the choice of additional intimacy the morning after this one night stand.
My interpretation here: This poem is about the old age question of decisions. But not in a particularly bad view. This person just arrived at a fork on the road, one he clearly has never taken before seeing that they never seemingly never saw these paths. When you think about it, isn't life all about decisions? And anytime we do make decisions, we always end up wondering or at least speculating: what if I had taken the other option? what experiences would I have lived, if my choice was another? But to this person, no matter the path, both will be the less traveled road. When handling a new situation and having to choose which path you will take, you will never know how the road in fact going to look like on both sides. Yet, no matter which less traveled road, for good or for bad, to our speaker it made all the difference. The act of simply choosing a path and traveling through it, and seeing it as a new experience in your life is able to make a whole difference, for good or bad. There is no positive or negative implied here, just that in the end, it changed everything, and well, our decisions to change and shift our lives all the time. This is in the end just my interpretation: the state of conscious being, and the neverending new shifts that changes bring to our lives.
My English teacher in High School brought this up when we did our study of Robert Frost. And this was, in my opinion, my second favorite poem. My teacher told us that apparently Frost wrote the poem as a satire essentially. One of his friends went on a walk with him and was incredibly indecisive, it was quite the interesting story! I do still prefer “Out, Out-“ but this is a close #2
For some reason, when I studied this poem in high school, I remember now that I wasn't exactly sure why the most common interpretation was so widely accepted. Now this video helps me understand why.
Does it? Or does it help you do exactly what the poem describes. Rationalize a decision made in the past to, whose context was lost, to make a better rational story for our conscious mind?
It sounds more like at least to me when he talks about remembering how he got where he is he will remember it and speak of it as something more grandiose than it actually is and he will say I took The road less traveled and it made all the difference. So basically he saying when he's older he will romanticize this path.
i dont normally watch stuff like this, but i enjoyed the video none-the-less. i would pause and read each passage before you to form my own opinion, and I believe this is a message of regret more than anything. Both paths seemed equal. Even that morning they were covered in leaves. But he can not stop lamenting over the other path. Great video. Nice work. Have a nice day.
I like the video, it allowed me to really dig into the poem. I think the last line supports part of your interpretation if we take it literally and not figuratively " That made all the difference" "I took the path less traveled in my mind, and this made [...]the difference" in between the two. Because the path became a part of a succession of choices that determine his path as his own... this is how this path becomes different in his experience. So in the end, the speaker is not claiming that in choosing this path he chose one that was inherently and objectively different, but as it was part of his journey, it made it ultimately different. And that's why there's a repetition of the "I" "I -- I took the less-traveled path". in this instance he explains how he conceptualizes this experience as a story, that he tells people. This definitely supports the idea that in his mind, this path became a different one because he was the one, with his specific trajectory to travel. Anyway. good video!
What's with the creepy glitching over the Patreon plug at the end? I stepped through it frame by frame and saw a bunch of text in various non-latin alphabets, the sequence of which appeared to run twice.
What a hot take! I haven't thought about this poem in forever; the realization that the last line is looking to the future was worth every minute of this video. Thank you for sharing
First I want you to thank for the exercise and thrill of reading a poem for the analysis and not just fir the sake o pleasure and beauty. Hadn't done this in a very long time, and your video is a gem. I agree with you that the poem is not about being original and not following the crowd, however, i will throw a different light on this poem. I would say that, on the contrary, all roads are the less traveled roads, thats why they are both the same and no steps had trodden the leaves marking the way. All roads are the least traveled ones because each one of us humans live our own lives and once ( yet knowing that way leads on to way / i doubted if i should ever come back). We cannot possibly know what lays ahead and how life will turn for us. There is no manual and we all make our own choices.
i’m dumb so i thought the narrator was like upset that he ruined the grassy path by walking on it i was in middle school i didn’t understand all the fancy language
Maybe what makes a difference is that he made a choose and that's what he's speaking about? And not what choose he made or what reason he used to make it?
My interpretation is that whatever road was more or less traveled, doesn’t matter, it’s just to distinct the two. The speaker just reflects on the path he took and says it was the right one, because it got him to where he is now. And even if he still doesn’t know what life he would have had if he made the other decision, he is happy with the choice he made. The poem (for me) is about learning to live with the choices that led you to be who you currently are...
Reading the whole poem before you describe your interpretation, doesn't make me feel like motivated, I feel like lost as the protagonist, looking back at the path I never take and flimsily attempting to reason I made the right choices.
When was going through high school, it was boarding school, one far from my home country and far in the countryside. When this poem was taught in my English Class, I was extremely fascinated by it, like it resonated with me. I wrote it down on a paper and pasted it near my bed. Reading it at the start of the day, somehow, it gave me a strength to overcome my high school. For me it was a source of strength and perseverance. Hearing this now - made me smile of the days gone by - and how its made me the man I am today.
I hate bringing this up here but, the more awareness and visibility we can get, the better.
The situation in Colombia is dire. I encourage you to research for yourselves. I plead with you for your awareness and solidarity.
It would also be of great help if we could get producers abroad to talk about this.
Thank you.
(I'm editing this as I re-read it. Sorry about that. I wrote it in haste...)
+
what's going on in Columbia?
@@thanksforreading33 protests with violent police
@@thanksforreading33 Colombia. British and Australian media tend to write it as Columbia, but I digress...
There's been an ongoing series of protests that have been countered with police and military violence. Many have died, many have disappeared.
I really need you, rather than having me reporting on this, to research and talk about this.
Thank you, Zoe.
Robert Frost wrote “The Road Not Taken” as a joke for a friend, the poet Edward Thomas. When they went walking together, Thomas was chronically indecisive about which road they ought to take and-in retrospect-often lamented that they should, in fact, have taken the other one.
And then he took the poem a bit too seriously, enlisted in the army, and died in World War I. Whoops.
Yep that's what I read too. Also he was a firm believer in the right to roam ( which in Scotland we enforce) and got very angry with a farmer for blocking a path. When to the farmers house and even through the farmer put a shot-gun in Robert's face he stood his ground and told him off. What a guy!
I can't believe i had to scroll that far for this comment
That's extremely interesting, thanks.
And the misinterpretations started super early after "Two Roads" was published. Even at the time Frost was like, [paraphrasing] "Y'all, it ain't that deep".
I remember it sticking out to me in highschool that this poem isn't positive. It's not negative, either. It's looking back and wondering 'what if?' The common interpretation neglects the ambiguity of the piece.
I haven’t seen the video yet, but I thought the ‘what if’ was the common interpretation.
Yeah! I always thought it was a reflection of decision making. You have to create the reason for justifying your choice, and that the consequences of the choice shape who you are. And you’re left to wonder what would have happened if you decided differently. I thought it was a great metaphor for the process.
I never heard that poem, english isnt my first language and we never had this poem in our english lessons. When I watched the video, about halfway through where the poem reading ended, I thought that this poem is about a "what if" situation.
@@safala The other commenters are skipping over this point you're making. But I see you and I agree.
Also even in the popular stanza, it doesn't have to be positive. Maybe there was a good reason for the path to be less traveled.
The title "The road not taken" doesn't refer to the road *others* didn't take, but the road the traveller didn't take
" Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back."
I agree. He never said that one road is better than the other. I have always felt like there is this longing and lonely feeling when you make a major decision in life. If you take on particular road, then the other road is lost to you as a person. The stories that could have been and the experiences there. And even if you came back and took the other road, it would still not be the same.
That's what I also thought it meant
So what you are saying is that you hate Palestine.
Agree about the road not taken - also the idea of post rationalization she makes is interesting but it takes it a little too far - not much evidence for it & it makes sense only in contrast to the common misinterpretation
wait a damn minute
Frost wrote this poem to give his friend a good ribbing for being so indecisive... And the whole world COMPLETELY lost their minds with misinterpretation lol
More accurately they misapplied a more common sentiment, which they all agreed upon, to a poem that wasn't really expressing that. It simply touched off something everyone feels and thinks about despite the poem. There's no right or wrong, and Frost isn't the bible (the bible isn't the bible either in my book). Many decisive people who live with no regrets are stupid. So there's that.
Well honestly..thata the thing about art... everyone can have their own interpretation and can enjoy stuff I'm their own way...it might have been made as a "joke"...but it really touched and made sense to other people...That is exactly what gave the poem the popularity...
Also the fact that the readers are more insightful about the poem than Frost himself... gives an idea about how good his readers word..
Nevertheless I like frost..
@@simrannisha8793 Came here to say that. The same thing can mean different things to different folks. It's always nice to know what the artist meant to say with it, the original meaning, but it's also nice to see different interpretations and meanings.
@@lucyk.5163 I k r... and i feel people should feel free to have their own interpretations...
Ironically too, this indirectly killed said friend by the poem influencing him to going to a war.
Honestly, when you broke it down slowly it feels like he's telling a story of regret. He kept thinking about the other path even after making the choice, and the full last paragraph feels like he's regretting the decision
Yeah, but it sorta says a lot about the narrator. That they're feeling regrets, and needing to justify to themselves a choice of footpath.
Surely to live life to the fullest, one should not waste mental energy panicking over minor stuff.
There's the thing, the narrative structure tacitly also tells us that he'd have felt the same regardless of the path taken and is fully aware of that fact.
I'm not sure I get pure regret from it, but something in that realm at least. The speaker being wistful, perhaps?
It's easy to think back (or think forward on how you're going to think back) and examine your arbitrary choices and on how different things might have been if you went the other way. If you applied to that other school, if you stayed living at home instead of moving out, if you dated another person, if you relocated to another job instead of staying where you are...
This is how I've interpreted it as well, at least recently. I get hung up on the title, and how it focuses on what the speaker didn't do.
As someone who had to choose between two things I was passionate about to focus on, I get it, though. Even if you're happy with the decision, you always wonder about the other.
when we analyzed this in school, I went and looked at the guy's wikipedia page and it said that he wrote this as a satire and sent it to his friend who inspired it. and that the friend took it seriously and enlisted in the war and died. it was so sad
Whoops. Thats kind of a yikes.
Wow, I miss ten seconds ago when I didn't know that.
thank you for sharing this big oof O_O
The dude created a monster lmao
oof
"When it comes to analyzing literature a lot of us were taught that there's a right answer, and then when we escape the public school system... we swing to the other side of the spectrum and think that there are no right answers, and that any and every interpretation of a text is equally valid."
Thank you so much for putting this into words! People need to find a middle ground between these two extremes.
the authorial intent argument. i prefer eco's thoughts on this subject. he refutes rorty, who i always felt was a blowhard.
As Yogi Berra taught us, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
But mom said we already have a fork at home
I walk down the middle, check mate atheist.
@@suprafluid3661 Walking down the middle of the road is a good way to get hit.
The main thing I see in the middle of a road is dead bunnies.
Yogi bear is
@@Coffeeisnecessarynowpepper He was "smarter then the average bear."
I’ll never stop being darkly amused when the most mainstream interpretation of a work of fiction is the one that the work of fiction itself mocks people for making.
big same lol. looking at you, orwell lovers
It's what I like to call "The 'Fight Club' trap/fallacy".
"Pull yourself up by your bootstraps"
Oh and I almost forgot, "the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb"
@@lilielf5652 wait what’s the first one actually mean?
@@Alice-gr1kb "Pulling oneself up by their bootstraps" used to be a phrase to describe someone absurdly trying to accomplish a task that is impossible to do alone. You imagine someone trying to get over a fence or something by pulling at their boots to lift themselves up and over the fence. Clearly impossible and absurd.
I am reminded of a Kierkegaard quote, from memory: "Get married, and you'll regret it. Don't get married, and you'll regret that too." It's from Either/Or. It's about having to choose and having to live with the consequences of your choices. Making the choice to go down one road or the other might have made all the difference. But which difference? We'll never know.
Kierkegaard is so right.
Agreed, my short interpretation is that we make our choices find/make reasons later on for why it was the better option.
@@grmpEqweer Kierkegaard is, in general, not right. Half the time, he's even wrong.
He was under the impression that life is pain, and that the only way to escape that pain, was in the afterlife by devotion to god.
It was very much a defeatist view point. "Yeah well, the elite might have it good, but I'll show them all... 'cause this book says that, if I work hard and accept my misery in life, then once we're dead, I'll be the greater man! Ha!"
@@tokeivo Kierkegaard is the kind of philosopher I read as someone "musing poetically about life", so to speak. It's been a while since I read him, and I haven't read all that he's written. I will not argue that Kierkegaard was right about everything or that his words should be taken as "gospel". However, I think he often has insightful, quotable aphorisms about life that have some merit. However, I regard his work as to a large extent expressions of opinion, value judgments, whose truth value is moot. Just like whether regarding life as pain or it being a defeatist viewpoint is not really about the truth or falsity of an outlook, but rather if you find it palatable or relatable.
@@tokeivo no philosopher is right on everything, because it would be a logical contradiction if they were, taking into account how much they trashed each other. Hell, even Wittgenstein argues with *himself* at some point.
What we can, and should do, is take the parts were they make the most sense and ignore the parts that don't
I want to say that the “road less traveled” could quite litteraly mean mean that “the road less explored/ thought apon” because he keeps thinking about the other path. It made a “difference” but that difference was a neither good nor bad difference, and could mean that he pondered so much on the other option, he could just be ignoreing what he has now instead of looking at the yellow woods around him and taking on his choice.
I agree. The last stanza can be delivered in either an upbeat or a regretful manner. It's left completely to interpretation, which, given the theme, is presumably the intent?
This is similar to my interpretation. The speaker looks at the decision wondering what would've been different. They have no reason to believe one is better or worse, but they haven't seen the other path and so it is unknown. (Possibly forever, if the path is never revisited) How I read it, neither satisfaction nor regret are experienced by the speaker. Where they aren't confident in either decision is uncomfortable, and they reflect on that.
Except I didn't pick up that he was ignoring where he is, just thinking about where he could be.
Robert Frost is the most terrifying writer of modern literature. I can"t think of one poem I've read of his that makes me happy, though all have made me a better man.
Turn _that_ into a poem. Watch the world misunderstand it.
Most poems aren't happy.
@@watertommyz That seems like the sort of incredibly broad statement that pretty much always turns out wrong. Because (of course!) it's diminishing a complex and nuanced subject. As if you said "The sky is always blue", or maybe "all people are like myself, essentially". A poem is a statement made from the heart, using the writer's own experiences and craft to concentrate language into a particular form. If you think most poems are unhappy, what do you think about other people?
@@BlackCover95Well, he already did it as much as it could be done. This poem, 'Stopping by the Woods...", "Design", "Mending Wall"...
"Design" and "The Oven Bird" in particular. Just absolutely deleterious to one's sense of self/uniqueness.
@@MrBendylaw they are mostly unhappy too, statistics never lie; unless if they do
This poem is like me reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book with four fingers stuck in the pages so I can go back to past choices and read other paths. That's what the speaker wants to do but can't.
why this is so accurate?
great analogy
Or reading a visual novel and saving before every choice
perfect analogy
@@cinny1313 haha
I thought the title meant that the poem itself didnt exist; you panicked me for a moment there :p
@@_DeadEnd_ aye, my mind rolls between "less travelled" and "not Taken" all the time so I was lulled in my my own conflation :P
@@ZahnZee The great irony given the thesis of this video is that the people who 'misinterpret' the poem focus on the road less traveled which is the road he took. While Frost focuses more on the road not taken.
i thought the same thing, regardless of the correct/incorrect title, my high school teacher actually taught us the correct meaning back in the day [no i am not a boomer, im a xennial], so i thought it was going to be something juicier about the poem itself not existing, meh..
@@ludamillion That's a perfect observation People really word things based on what they've interpreted to be the focal point
😂 same here
I mean "I took the slightly more grassy road and that was pretty cool, I guess" doesn't sound as good.
I dunno, I'd read the shit out of that
@@zaxtonhong3958 Well spoken. Couldn't've said it better myself.
Grassy is classy,
It makes all the diff.
I'm happily choosy,
But then, hey, _what if_ -- ?
This poem is famously misinterpreted. It's because nobody actually reads the damned thing, even though it's incredibly short.
I too, hadn't ever heard the full poem and I find the actual message a lot more relatable. Pick one and constantly wonder about the other. The path I took made all the difference, but it's a moot point; the difference is lost in a comparison I can't make because I picked a path and can't go back.
this is a helpful add on explanation!
the comparison may be moot rationally, yet the poet such poems must write. of life of would-be, adventures and glory
"The difference is lost in a comparison I can't make, because I picked a path and can't go back"
Wow that's a really good way of putting it thank you
This is basically the interpretation that Robert Frost intended for his excessively indecisive friend. It was kind of a jab and a joke to his friend who would constantly worry about what the other "path" could lead to and which would be more right while constantly using this logic to regret making the decision he made when he did make a decision.
Exactly this!
Me and a friend came to the conclusion that this poem was an exercise in self justification, the teacher just about failed us on the spot, good to see we aren't the only ones who see this poem differently.
wha?? that's so irritating. As if your job as a teacher isn't to encourage different points of view and how different experiences inform your interpretation of a text. I hope that you didn't get marked down on an assessment :((
My teacher's interpretation was that he just wandered off into the woods between the paths. I prefer this one lol
...Right, grade you on how you support your thinking, not whether you "think the right way."
This genuinely made me mad to read. I hope you can send your teacher this video as justification.
"...and so the poem says that you should choose your own path, even if most people don't agree with it." "Miss, I dont agree with your interpretation" "Well, you're wrong. It's the common interpretation so it must be right!"
Do these people listen to themselves?
This is my favourite poem for this very reason. It’s a great example of how art is such a personal experience to the individual. The meaning of this poem can be taken so many ways. It was written to playfully tease his hiking friend about his indecisiveness, but it actually upset his friend as he thought he was mocking him. Confident that the playful undertones were obvious, he read it to a class of students who, much to Frosts surprise, found it a deep and profound stance on individualism! Here’s another great example of a different interpretation. I’ve heard so many different thought provoking takes on this poem, it feels like you can view this through 100 of different lenses and find new meaning, and rarely the one it was intended to have!
Just for the first line...
Art was always supposed to be left for people's expectations...
It was/is the public School which instils right from wrong idea among students..
Please tell me source for knowing good English poems
The poet has never been the master, always the puppet
I've long agreed with this interpretation. I think Frost was trying to point out our tendency to convince ourselves that our choices have more weight and meaning than they actually do.
I appreciate you stating the importance of the text in poetry analysis. In high school, I always struggled to understand how the teachers got their interpretations from the text, and grew to really hate poetry as a result. But these videos are starting to turn things around for me.
I could easily regurgitate the answer the "correct" answer if that's what they want, but they wanted us to synthesize said answer ourselves, without telling us the answer. "Why could X mean Y" is a perfectly reasonable argumentative exercise and I think there would be value in an assignment like that. I remember the easiest A I ever got on an essay was just from reading the cliff's notes, since they plainly tell you the conventional answers regarding meaning. Even if I argued the "correct" answer just as poorly as I would have if I had synthesized one on my own, it seems like the grade mostly depended on stating the correct conclusion. Though to be fair, that was probably the best real-world lesson I was accidentally taught: people often don't care how you reached your conclusion, only that you reached the one that they agree with.
My answer to every tiresome literary analysis is this poem:
Introduction to Poetry
By Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Dont blame teacher they're just teaching what the school system wants them to teach
yeah i know right! my english teacher insisted the red wheelbarrow poem was about how "the quality of life depends on the details"
but like
i don't get it
where do you get that from the text
it sounds very fancy and all but
how ???
it's literally just vaguely praising some wheelbarrow near some chickens
It’s all bull to justify teaching positions in education. I never interpreted things the “correct” way in high school and college and was “educated” out of such thoughts and interpretations. Or more to the point, I learned to just go along with the prof’s interpretation in order to pass the class. As the movie says, “They don’t have meetings about rainbows.”
The Gritty Hollywood Reboot™️ of this poem is that he travels back in time to travel the road again. Kills his alternative self to become to Path-More-Tavelled-By man. And then in the end truly learns that it never mattered in the first place.
*Christopher Nolan dark bwwooonnng of dramatic tension*
WOAH love it
Frost-a la Vista, _baybee..._
I'd unironcally watch that and love it
I- I love this so much can I *please* have permission to write this as screenplay writing practice
That sounds like this one time traveling film that has Hans Mikkleson in it.
(Edit) the film is called "The Door."
STANZA
Now that's a word I haven't heard in 15 years.
It’s a poem about lying to yourself and everyone ignores the lying part and goes yes. I do this too. I can’t escape the feeling that it’s somehow ironic that everyone takes it at face value and then lies to themselves the same way the poem is sort of poking fun at in its own way.
Ever since the fifth grade when we read this poem in class I always read the last line, _”and that has made all the difference,”_ as sarcasm.
I can't recall where I heard it, but I've heard another analysis of this poem that reads it as sarcastic. And, outside of the text, cites the author's relationship with one of his contemporaries who would frame every minuscule thing as very deep and profound. That this poem was mocking his friend for being so pretentious.
@Electro_blob 2 This was the other analysis I was referring to. th-cam.com/video/sH3Y_-Hxh_Q/w-d-xo.html I am not a scholar myself so I cannot speak to its veracity, except to say that I've found the channel to be trustworthy and reliable in the past. And there are sources in the video description for verification.
@Electro_blob 2 Everyone is welcome to their interpretation, but the most literal reading of the poem is "There was a fork in the road. Both ways were nearly the same. When I think about it later, I'll say the one I chose was better."
To put it another way:
Two interpretations diverged in a comment section, and sadly I could not espouse them both and still be of one mind. Long I sat and watched the first until the end to where its conclusion waited valid.
Then took the other just as reasoned well, and having perhaps the clearer truth for fewer
came to find it as their own;
Though as for that the viewers there had commented perhaps as many times to say the other had the view that they would like to hold.
But on this afternoon I now have found. That neither view has proved itself the better. And
thought that mine perhaps one day may change, though, knowing how I trend, set in my
ways, I doubted ever that I'd find it so.
I shall respond another time with a sigh as I have done in threads so many times before. Two interpretations diverged in a comment section and I - I agreed with the one less well
accepted societally, And that has made all the difference
@Electro_blob 2 😁 Thank you.
@@MrKyltpzyxm I think you have one of the sharpest wits i've seen in a comment section, if you came up with that.
We shall be sharing this with glee,
Somewhere on TH-cam, ages hence:
Two takes diverged in analysis, and Zoe-
She takes the take less taken,
And that has made all the difference.
😆
15/10 meta and clever, love this 👏👏👏
Lol. 😆
That's a good bit. 👍
two takes diverged in analysis
and sorry i could not argue both
and be one reader, long i thought
and sought out textual proof where i could
to where it collapsed under baseless claims
@@thequeertelope7941 Also brilliant, love it! Nice work
"What is the most important step a man can take?"
"The next one. Always the next one."
- Brandon Sanderson
"When Robert Frost came to a set of 2 equal paths, he travelled the path on his left"
This poem is Jeff Bezos writing about how he ‘started Amazon in a garage’ while neglecting to mention the million dollars of his parent’s money.
hey! don't let the truth get in the way of a good story (i was going to google that phrase because now i'm afraid i've got the meaning wrong.. but.. i won't let the truth get in the way...)
@@geekgroupie42 The one that you may be looking for is "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend" from _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance._
@@wvu05 ohh i didn't know that was a movie, i love the song! anyway, thanks!
@@geekgroupie42 It's a very good one. It stars Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne, directed by John Ford.
Almost. It's more like if Jeff Bezos said "I chose to start a company in my garage, INSTEAD OF working for a corporation...and that made all the difference." OF COURSE a decision like that will set your life in one direction vs. another, but trying your luck at being an inventor/entrepreneur vs. seeking a steady paycheck is hardly a road less traveled. Many, many, many people at some point try and fail at starting a business. And if they didn't fail, most all those people would stay on that road -- it's a road less traveled by only if we discount all the people who got eaten along the path (and then you're point about his inheritance is relevant).
It also bears mentioning that Robert Frost wrote this poem to poke fun at an indecisive friend, who ALSO got the wrong message, and Frost had to walk him through the text of the poem to explain the joke to him.
That's kinda sweet.
What's the joke could u explain
I've always thought that what the poem is really saying is that seemingly insignificant, spontaneous decisions will change the course of your life- for the better or for worse. And that you'd never know what your life could have been if you had chosen the other path instead.
I'm inclined to think that the real magic of art happens in the mind and heart of whoever experiences it. We can discuss interpretations and share experiences, but everyone has their own experience and there's no right or wrong in that.
As an artist I weave the fabric, but I don't get to decide what it is used for or if it has any use at all. If it evokes an experience that goes beyond my intention and gives a canvas for someone else to paint their emotions, it's all good!
I always thought that poem was about decision making and how hard it is. because we don’t know what would have happened if we had chose the other, We will never know if we made the right decision or if the other was better. It’s about the regret of not being able to see them both through.
If you want to be taken seriously do not use “ Cuz”. Very bad form !
@@terrlaw328 fixed, r u happy
@@terrlaw328 it's the internet, cuz. (A.k.a. cousin. Cuz it's the internet and everyone uses slang. This isn't a work email.)
I disagree! 😊
@@nicolab2075 what does the poem mean to you?
My English teacher (I'm in high school) always says shell accept any interpretation we give as long as we can prove it with the text.
Sounds like you have a good English teacher, then :)
Same here.
The best teachers do that
Yeah same for me, she just says we need evidence from the text
my english teacher also does that!
This sounds pretty good to me. I think humans have this idea that road less taken is somehow special, or better. I remember being taught it in church when I was little etc. I don't know where it comes from but we ascribe it to so many texts, when I think the reality is that the idea came first and then our interpretation of texts, not the other way around.
People want so very much to stick out from the crowd and be different from everyone else.
I would assume the one more travelled is safer
Reminds me of that song "Everybodys free(to wear sunscreen)"
"Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old-- and when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders"
I always thought Frost was using the poyum as a metaphor for life. At childhood the traveler sees a world unhampered. As an adult they have to make a hard choice between no right answer. At the end where the traveler is looking back from elderly age they tell the lies that suit thier narrative. I feel as though Frost was trying to both comfort and warn. The traveler gives us the courage to choose but also not to listen to people whom say they have a truth.
wth is a poyum
@@crcker3841
In English, I presume? A literary method of communicating ideas and thoughts within a case limit form. An English word that you may know is poem. Although the two sound similar, they come from two different linguistic histories. Poyum is Scots.
@@omnipotent_arcanis yeah since you were writing in english i got confused when you pulled out poyum
To me this poem is about our life choices... When we're young we make choices as best we can, but even a good choice may have a bad outcome, and we'll never know where other choices might have taken us. It's hard not to feel some regret. We know our choices matter, but we can never know how things might have been different. This poem perfectly expresses this to me ❤️
Well my interpretation is a bit dark, "All the difference" never imply its something good, by taking the path less travelled the traveller make a grave mistake, just like when you went against unity, you become an outcast
I've always understood it that way
I feel like this poem is just about the feeling we get when we think about what could have happened if we made a different decision. Not necessarily an emotion as strong as regret, but a longing to see what we missed out on or were lucky enough to avoid by making the choices that we did.
I interpret the last stansa slightly differently. Since it's looking forward to what he'll tell people in the future, I took it to mean that he was forcing himself to justify the decision in the moment even if it wasn't true.
That’s how I read it. He was trying to justify his decision even if it wasn’t true.
I've always interpreted this poem as being two identical choices, that, regardless of the outcome, would have mattered: the choice always has an alternative, but the speaker is cognizant of the moral that we are one person, and only walk each path once.
I memorized this poem in the 7th grade and can still recite it from memory to this day, 37 years later. Shout out to Mr. Cole at Skyway Middle School who introduced me to poetry. I still compose it and love to read it to this day.
Yeah, I don't know how so many people miss it. Like, ever since sixth grade I'd get into arguments with my english teachers because I actually read the bit about the paths being worn the same
And everyone clapped.
Grace Nakimura Ah, yes everyone did clap. Then after my standing ovation, we all talked about how kids aren’t braindead, unlike how everyone on the internet wants to pretend they are. I knew full well when I commented this that it would come off as pompous, but it’s really just me wondering how we twisted the meaning so much, when even a not particularly bright kid, like I was, could figure it out
Is this a thing? Do English teachers in your country regularly try to teach pupils that their interpretations of subjective art is wrong? They didn't do that where I went to school (UK).
@@robokill387 Sadly in the US art is often taught as a right/wrong subject just like anything other 'harder' subject (harder as in hard science). The reason for this is that the American public school system is built entirely around standardized testing and you can't have a standardized test for somethings which doesn't have 'correct' answers.
Amazingly, I never had to read this poem. Only know it through cultural osmosis so this is enlightening.
To me this poem is pretty clearly a dig at the self justification you're talking about. He's saying "in the future I will make up some pithy aphorism about how my life is great now because I took a bold and purposeful choice, and only I will know that that is a big lie I tell to make myself look like a brave and clever person". It's relatable because we all do that.
I always saw this poem as an “all roads lead to home” kind of meaning. Something like how one decision (like what path to take while on a stroll) won’t make a big impact on your life.
Here's what I get from that poem: At some point in our lives, we all look back at something we did or didn't do, and say, "What if?" We make decisions because they seem right at the time, but often we regret them, and even if we don't, we wonder if things would have been better had we made a different decision. We can't go back and change our decision, no matter how much we'd like to, and so we are where we are, for better or for worse.
But I dont think this is about regretting the decision, so much as justifying it in hindsight?
@@nicolab2075 it's not even about justifying the decision in hindsight, it's about the speaker believing that in the future he will assign importance to the decision, even though at the time he made it, it appeared inconsequential. I think you're right that it can't be about regret, because he couldn't possibly know whether or not, years in the future, he will regret the decision.
@@isaacbruner65 Yes, that. You put it better.
Great video Zoe! I love this different style of video (I love the rest of your videos too). The story of this poem is also very interesting, apparently Robert Frost wrote this for a friend, mocking his indecisiveness and the over importance he gave to small decisions
Now, that sounds like Frost.
What I got when I read it in high school was that sometimes you have to make arbitrary choices that have big impact in our lives and it might feel like you are missing out on whatever choice you aren’t taking, but that’s ok. I see “that made all the difference at the end” after all the hesitation as the author looking back and seeing the road not with regret but with appreciation cause it got him to wherever he is today. For me the message is: At the end what’s important is not which road you take, but that you keep going forward, so dont let the fear of missing out control you.
Also I don’t think thats the TRUE interpretation, I just thought it might be interesting to see a similar view as the one in the video but a little more positive
Great analysis. I hadn’t read this poem in over a decade and enjoyed rediscovering it with you. Your interpretation is simultaneously scary and comforting.
Scary in that it challenges the concept of destiny; that the narratives we retrospectively author for ourselves in order to feel like things were “meant to be” is just a balm for creeping feelings of nihilism.
Comforting in that it encourages acceptance for your decisions; it highlights the futility of regrets, as you put it: “sometimes you just make a decision and you have to live with it”.
Love it!
I was trying to choose between two Robert Frost video essays to watch on my TH-cam homepage and the thumbnails were both pretty good. Actually yours was better so I clicked on it and the algorithm spirited the other one away. I'll probably tweet about this later like "wtf" but I decided to watch your video with the better thumbnail and holy smokes... it changed everything.
This is my new favorite version
lmaoo
This right here. This is what you call an Epic Comment.
I always thought something was weird with this poem - the popular interpretation seemed really trite. I like it a lot more now, thank you!
I remember when we went over this poem in my Ap Lit class, I learned the more true interpretation and I related to it so much more: decision, regret, always wondering what could've been, not wanting to miss out on either choice, wondering how much it impacted your life. It made me appreciate Robert Frost a lot more
I feel like he’s saying the consequences of the meaningless choice he made, made the choice meaningful. We’re always curious about what would have happened had we made a different choice and, in a sense, all choices are meaningful.
Darn this editing style, I love the normal one but this is really cool too.
Thank you! I was a little scared to try something new, so I'm glad you liked it!
@@zoe_bee I like it actually much better, that's just me though.
@@zoe_bee it worked! Made the concepts and ideas really easy to digest and understand! :)
I guess you could say they took the road less traveled by-
@@zoe_bee As a much older student (studied this poem in school circa 1990), yours is the interpretation I was taught. It wasn't until just now that I learned that the other existed or that it was more prevalent. I have always had an appreciation for that English teacher anyway, as she did not teach Romeo and Juliet as a love story, but as two teenagers who gave up their own lives (and those of others) for a three day lack of impulse control. Thank you for helping me to appreciate her again, 3+ decades later. Now I want to go back and rewatch Dead Poet's Society to see if this was the message Robin Williams presented and I just missed it completely...
I adore that you told people not to be a jerk about their misinterpretations. Thanks for another very quality piece of content!
I really like this interpretation! It aligns with why I find it so needling when people say "everything happens for a reason" or "you'll end up wherever you're meant to" or "when one door closes, another will open" and things like that. Life is a series of millions of choices with no real "right" or "wrong" decision, but sometimes even a small decision that seems fairly equal to another decision might lead you down a very different path. That doesn't make one better than the other! But there's no higher power or higher purpose dictating our life, it's our own choices and experiences and reactions. A lot of the time, there really isn't a "reason" for something happening other than a fairly arbitrary decision made by you or someone else. You aren't "meant to" have a particular life path, and opening doors is driven by... well, again, the decisions of yourself and those around you.
I always felt he walked back the way he came, as opposed to taking either of the two paths in front of him
There isn’t much textual evidence for this, but it just fits in best with my personal life experience, and I guess it could be an explanation for why he was able to find a difference in the particular path he took
This poem was my English final in high school. I didn't know it beforehand (being Italian I only knew the poets we'd covered in class) and of course went with the popular face-level reading. I remember going back home, googling it and smacking myself in the forehead when I read it was actually supposed to be irony.
Luckily, it seems, my exam commission hadn't picked up on the irony either, because I got a full mark.
I think people only 'misinterpret' this poem because some of its lines are usually taken out of context for inspirational quotes. It's not in itself trying to be tricky or conceal its regretful meaning, and neither is the meaning hard to glean because the text is overstylized. Rather, it's written in a very straightforward and unadorned way. The lines "I kept the first for another day!" and "I shall be telling this with a sigh" are very easy to understand, as far as poetic language goes, and make a positive reading of this poem patently incorrect.
“…some of its lines are usually taken out of context for inspirational quotes…”
That was sort of my impression, too. People _want_ the interpretation to be “Do your own thing! Follow the less-traveled path” and basically ignore a textual analysis, just relying on the last lines. It’s not even a misanalysis-it’s more like a non-analysis.
@@jeff__w yep, that’s exactly what I wanted to say. Non-analysis
Every other sentence: "doesn't exist"
Me questioning my own existence
👀
👄
I love this poem, and this interpretation is great! I interpret the poem as you choose the paths in life that make sense to you, but often we end up wondering what could have been. You can be very content with your choice, but later on the mind loves to wander. The brain postulates with an almost wanderlust, but in the end it's not the path we imagined that got us where we are, rather it's the path we arbitrarily chose that made us end up where we are.
Once I started working in my current profession, this poem always felt like a metaphor for that time in early adulthood when you are actually taking the first steps toward what you want to do "when you grow up." There are so many moments when you make a choice that will point you in a certain direction. Each choice seems to make all the difference in the world. And while you might be choosing the path you think is different, unique, well trodden, etc., it turns out many of the paths are very similar. And, yet, it is unlikely you will ever be in the position to make that same choice again. I have always hated the common interpretation of poem, because it is so overly dramatic. The paths, as described, are both very fine paths...it's not like the "one less traveled" is muddy and hard to navigate.
I would add to the poem.
"walk the path you want, discovered or not.
Walk, but carry a pen , a paper.
Write the path, for someone to traverse
Thru the same , and then they will make
The same for the next kin behind them.
Stay put, stay brave.
Those dark avenues will be filled by Mark of your boot."
I love your interpretation and your method of getting to it!
"When it comes to analyzing literature a lot of us were taught that there's a right answer, and then when we escape the public school system... we swing to the other side of the spectrum and think that there are no right answers, and that any and every interpretation of a text is equally valid."
I agree. As an English teacher I often have to guide discussions depending on the class they happen in because some groups get very puzzled if presented with many interpretations and I honestly feel that it's down to literacy. At that point it's helpful to actually have an anchor point around which to guide discussions rather than floating around in a sea of interpretations, since those students' minds haven't matured enough to be able to sift through all the different options.
A more able group, however, would LOVE and thrive in this sea of interpretations and have in-depth debates about it. That's when the anchor point isn't as necessary and you can let the students go.
The hope is that, eventually, the students which need the anchoring scaffold will be able to actually go ahead and dip their toes in the sea of possibilities ^_^
I never got the "common interpretation," I just cant think of it as being that the speaker somehow made a perfect decision, my thoughts were always that he had to have regretted the decision, that's why he looks back, imagining having taken the other, greener path, a very "the grass is always greener" (literally) message.
This was really well done! I myself am horrendously bad at interpreting literature, so it's always interesting to see people pick it apart into something deeper.
Yes - a commentary on the narratives we all create about our own lives.
It's one of the things that always stands out when I read an autobiography - the bit where they basically go "well I was always good at x / loved x as a kid" where x is the thing they became famous for. But the reality is they have re-enforced the memories/feeling about that particular thing after the fact - essentially, a form of hindsight that imposes more structure and decision making than there probably ever actually was. The sports-person was probably good at / loved lots of sports, but the one they ended up having a successful career in is the ones whose associated memories get cherry picked later to re-inforce / impose a narrative to their life.
This makes me think about an article I read that did a poll on the most common regrets of dying patients in a hospital, and the top two were "working too hard not making time for my family" and "not chasing my dreams", the article was some inspirational piece about not leaving regrets behind, but my takeaway was that the people who chased their dreams couldn't have time fore their family, and the people who did, didn't have time to chase their dreams. This is what the poem reads to me, we would all like to take both paths and see which one is better, but we only have one shot and we only have so much time in life. At the end of our short journey, we will always have regretted and wandered "what ifs" about the path we didn't take, because no humans are ever truly satisfied with their choices, especially at a time where you have no chance to make another.
Great analysis! Three times he tells us that the paths were really the same. Then he tells us that, later, HE WILL SAY that he chose the road less travelled by, when he really didn’t. He admits that he will romanticize the decision and make it seem more of a virtuous decision, when it was really a totally random one. There are three give aways... 1) Frost says, “I will say...” not “I will think...” 2) The sigh, and 3) the stutter “I - I...” These three gives it away that he admits his tale will just be a dramatic misrepresentation, and less than honest, when recounting the story years from now. And, the icing on the cake is the poem’s title... it gives away the true lament and potential wondering or regret, because he is really thinking about the other ROAD NOT TAKEN. He admits that, in the future, he will try to convince himself that he chose the right path long ago. There is a reason why it is not titled, “The Road Less Travelled By.”
I've always loved this poem. My interpretation was always pretty close to yours, but I pictured the speaker being self-aware of how his future self would elaborate on the tale, assigning importance and meaning to his arbitrary decision.
I've had this poem memorized for years for the sole purpose of convincing people that it is not about life decisions but a single intimate encounter Frost had and the choice of additional intimacy the morning after this one night stand.
The existential angst of making life decisions... or realizing you’ve let the trajectory of your life be set by inaction
My interpretation here:
This poem is about the old age question of decisions.
But not in a particularly bad view. This person just arrived at a fork on the road, one he clearly has never taken before seeing that they never seemingly never saw these paths.
When you think about it, isn't life all about decisions? And anytime we do make decisions, we always end up wondering or at least speculating: what if I had taken the other option? what experiences would I have lived, if my choice was another?
But to this person, no matter the path, both will be the less traveled road. When handling a new situation and having to choose which path you will take, you will never know how the road in fact going to look like on both sides.
Yet, no matter which less traveled road, for good or for bad, to our speaker it made all the difference.
The act of simply choosing a path and traveling through it, and seeing it as a new experience in your life is able to make a whole difference, for good or bad. There is no positive or negative implied here, just that in the end, it changed everything, and well, our decisions to change and shift our lives all the time.
This is in the end just my interpretation: the state of conscious being, and the neverending new shifts that changes bring to our lives.
Sad you didn't refer to the poet even once as Bobert Frost haha. Great video! :D
My English teacher in High School brought this up when we did our study of Robert Frost. And this was, in my opinion, my second favorite poem. My teacher told us that apparently Frost wrote the poem as a satire essentially. One of his friends went on a walk with him and was incredibly indecisive, it was quite the interesting story! I do still prefer “Out, Out-“ but this is a close #2
There's an assumption that most people make (including myself), that the outcome of the traveller choosing the path he did, lead to a positive end.
I am so glad there are others out there who acknowledge the feelings of regret in this poem.
For some reason, when I studied this poem in high school, I remember now that I wasn't exactly sure why the most common interpretation was so widely accepted. Now this video helps me understand why.
Does it? Or does it help you do exactly what the poem describes. Rationalize a decision made in the past to, whose context was lost, to make a better rational story for our conscious mind?
@@brandonsaffell4100
Perhaps. Definitely something to think about
9:09 Thought I was about to be taken to the mfin Eyeball Zone.
It sounds more like at least to me when he talks about remembering how he got where he is he will remember it and speak of it as something more grandiose than it actually is and he will say I took The road less traveled and it made all the difference. So basically he saying when he's older he will romanticize this path.
More than anything this sounds to me like a poem about regret and wondering how a different choice might have made your life turn out differently.
Interesting interpretation, good analysis, and enjoyable video! One tiny nit: When you said "prescribe" did you mean to say "ascribe"?
I literally just did this in class for English. The youtube algorithm is scary
i dont normally watch stuff like this, but i enjoyed the video none-the-less. i would pause and read each passage before you to form my own opinion, and I believe this is a message of regret more than anything. Both paths seemed equal. Even that morning they were covered in leaves. But he can not stop lamenting over the other path.
Great video. Nice work. Have a nice day.
I like the video, it allowed me to really dig into the poem. I think the last line supports part of your interpretation if we take it literally and not figuratively " That made all the difference"
"I took the path less traveled in my mind, and this made [...]the difference" in between the two. Because the path became a part of a succession of choices that determine his path as his own... this is how this path becomes different in his experience.
So in the end, the speaker is not claiming that in choosing this path he chose one that was inherently and objectively different, but as it was part of his journey, it made it ultimately different. And that's why there's a repetition of the "I" "I -- I took the less-traveled path". in this instance he explains how he conceptualizes this experience as a story, that he tells people. This definitely supports the idea that in his mind, this path became a different one because he was the one, with his specific trajectory to travel.
Anyway. good video!
so you're saying
the path was different because it was the one that was chosen?
that seems a bit circular...?
I was wrong, a 10 minute discussion you were able to quickly shoot and edit is great
What's with the creepy glitching over the Patreon plug at the end? I stepped through it frame by frame and saw a bunch of text in various non-latin alphabets, the sequence of which appeared to run twice.
What glitching? I don't know what you're talking about.
Zoe ARG?? 👀👀👀
What a hot take! I haven't thought about this poem in forever; the realization that the last line is looking to the future was worth every minute of this video. Thank you for sharing
First I want you to thank for the exercise and thrill of reading a poem for the analysis and not just fir the sake o pleasure and beauty. Hadn't done this in a very long time, and your video is a gem.
I agree with you that the poem is not about being original and not following the crowd, however, i will throw a different light on this poem. I would say that, on the contrary, all roads are the less traveled roads, thats why they are both the same and no steps had trodden the leaves marking the way.
All roads are the least traveled ones because each one of us humans live our own lives and once ( yet knowing that way leads on to way / i doubted if i should ever come back).
We cannot possibly know what lays ahead and how life will turn for us. There is no manual and we all make our own choices.
i’m dumb so i thought the narrator was like upset that he ruined the grassy path by walking on it
i was in middle school i didn’t understand all the fancy language
Maybe what makes a difference is that he made a choose and that's what he's speaking about? And not what choose he made or what reason he used to make it?
That's a pretty good point.
My interpretation is that whatever road was more or less traveled, doesn’t matter, it’s just to distinct the two. The speaker just reflects on the path he took and says it was the right one, because it got him to where he is now. And even if he still doesn’t know what life he would have had if he made the other decision, he is happy with the choice he made.
The poem (for me) is about learning to live with the choices that led you to be who you currently are...
Reading the whole poem before you describe your interpretation, doesn't make me feel like motivated, I feel like lost as the protagonist, looking back at the path I never take and flimsily attempting to reason I made the right choices.
I never read the poem entirely, so thanks for this insight. Plus I like that suspicious brain illustration
I studied Robert Frost last year in high school, and then i start seeing "The Road Not Taken" everywhere *after* my exams zzz
It also makes me think if he said the line "I took the one less travelled by" Just in the form of exaggeration of an adventure that wasn't there.
When was going through high school, it was boarding school, one far from my home country and far in the countryside. When this poem was taught in my English Class, I was extremely fascinated by it, like it resonated with me.
I wrote it down on a paper and pasted it near my bed. Reading it at the start of the day, somehow, it gave me a strength to overcome my high school.
For me it was a source of strength and perseverance. Hearing this now - made me smile of the days gone by - and how its made me the man I am today.