I was fortunate. I stumbled upon Robert Frost in my middle school years and being a philosophical kind of person, he became, and has been ever since, my favourite poet.
Lucky or unlucky,whatever you want to call it, my name starts with a double “A”, which meant that by default, I was the first one who had to learn up poems by heart and sing them out in from of the entire class.
That always gave me sweaty palms and cold feet, but two particular poems were absolutely worth it.
They are:
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
- The Road Not Taken
They are metaphorical and draw a comparison to life. Here is what I learnt from each of them:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
The story:
A person is walking by woods and is watching the snowfall as it paints the scene white. He feels that his horse is probably finding the situation strange as he has stopped in the middle of nowhere on a cold and dark evening. Confused, the horse shakes his bell, and this is heard loudly in the quiet setting. The sound breaks the silence as well as the thoughts of the person and brings him back. He realises that the woods are beautiful but he has a lot to fulfil and miles to go.
The message:
We all have a lot that we want to achieve in our lives. We will constantly be faced with distractions along the way that will momentarily attract us. But it is important to quickly regain our focus and get back on track, moving closer to the commitments we have to fulfil. Our conscious will always be there to remind us that we have a lot to accomplish and achieve in life. We should remember why we started and keep going, no matter what.
The Road Not Taken
The story:
A person is walking in the woods and there is a fork in the road. He realises the fact that since he is just one person, he will have to choose one of the two paths and finds himself faced with a dilemma. He studies both roads carefully. One is old and worn, while the other is fresh and has not been walked on by too many people. He chooses this one and leaves the other one for some other time, even though he knows that he probably won’t be able to come back because in life ways lead to other ways.
The message:
As we travel through the journey of life, at every step we are faced with choices. Every choice we make impacts are future greatly and we can never go back in time to choose differently. Every little step we take shapes our future. We shouldn’t be afraid to take a path that is unconventional and different from what someone would normally do. We shouldn’t dwell on what might have been and should keep moving on.
These two poems have guided my perspective in life. I have learnt a lot, and among other things, the advice given by him in these works is perhaps something I live by.
