America's Great Poet of Darkness: A Reconsideration of Robert Frost at 150

Re:America's Great Poet of Darkness: A Reconsideration of Ro... by rrrrrrrrrrrryan on Thursday April 04, 2024 @02:21AM (#39927126)

Frost's poetry is famously ambiguous. Even his most famous poem, which people usually assume is about the positive attributes of a life of nonconformity, can be read from the opposite perspective:

> Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

> I took the one less traveled by,

> And that has made all the difference

Note he doesn't state whether the difference was positive or negative.

We put ourselves into the poetry, and much of his work can indeed be quite dark when read from a certain place.

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Re:America's Great Poet of Darkness: A Reconsideration of Ro... by pmoriarty on Saturday April 06, 2024 @01:18PM (#39953839)

> Note he doesn't state whether the difference was positive or negative.

But if taken (as it usually is) as a metaphor of life's choices, in this case his life choices made him Robert Frost, the famous, incredibly successful poet -- so it's implied that in his case taking road less traveled by was positive.

Now, if the subject of the poem was some anonymous nobody, then maybe the poem would be more ambiguous.

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