Poem: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Road not Taken speaks about the lives we live and the multiple opportunities we have to make decisions. Each decision leads down different paths where new opportunities and challenges reside. Where one decision is chosen a sequence of other decisions becomes possible. So on and so forth throughout our lifetimes. 

In old age we often look back at the decisions we have made and can sometimes find that precise moment where we defined our lives. This is where the big decisions are made that change the patterns of life.  Each person has a few moments that have led them to where they currently stand.  Age brings better perspective. 

When you reach a fork in the road it is beneficial to look down as far as one can see. Sometimes you have to get out your binoculars and other times you simply have to take a giant leap and accept the results. Roads are definitive but it is possible that they reconnect in various places in the future. It is important to think critically where you want to go and start moving despite the well traveled paths others have taken.

The Meaning of A Boundless Moment by Robert Frost

A Boundless Moment by Robert Frost

He halted in the wind, and — what was that
Far in the maples, pale, but not a ghost?
He stood there bringing March against his thought, And yet too ready to believe the most.

"Oh, that's the Paradise-in-bloom," I said;
And truly it was fair enough for flowers
had we but in us to assume in march
Such white luxuriance of May for ours.

We stood a moment so in a strange world,
Myself as one his own pretense deceives;
And then I said the truth (and we moved on).
A young beech clinging to its last year's leaves.

The poem is one of seasons changing and the cycle of life. Each May the bloom comes out and brings life to the death of winter. The poem is about a single moment when the characters see that life has changed. The layers of meaning can be deep but on the surface it appears Robert Frost is discussing nature and its cyclical momentum.  Everything in nature moves through patterns.

The poem indicates that he is walking with someone. The pastoral beauty of nature has caught their eye and they pause for just a moment. They gaze into nature and its ever changing existence-a paradise of bloom. The author discusses a piece of truth to his companion and both move on. He feels as though he is in a strange world where pretenses fail our human understanding of our place within it all.

In the last sentence we see a comment about a young beech clinging to its last year’s leaves. It is possible to see this as how we always cling to what was before and fail to embrace the new. No matter how much we cling to the past change sweeps up us all. We can’t live in the past. The tree with a single leaf could be a metaphor for how we try and maintain our youth and past, but life will make it all fall away. Humans and nature are part of the very same existence.