More Words To Think About The Road Not Taken

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers More Words to Think About: The Road not Taken I received a very nice response to my poetry post last Friday, so I decided to post another one. There was a time when I was a young adult thinking about my future and the decisions I needed to make. I would eventually go into the United States Air Force. Should I go to law school first? Instead, should I plan to become a teacher and coach? My dad took me aside and we had a really wonderful father-son chat. He told me about the Robert Frost poem:  The Road Not Taken. He told me the point of the poem is I would not know whether I took the right path until I was old and could look back and reflect on the path I had taken. He told me this would be true with most decisions in life I would make. He was right and now many, many years later I can reflect on the paths I have taken over my career and life. If you are not familiar with the poem, it is one that is frequently misunderstood.  Read it and then read it a second time. Then take a look at the links below to see a couple of analyses. The Road Not Taken 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 Iâ€" I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference I enjoyed reading:  Robert Frost’s Tricky Poem “The Road Not Taken.”   This is the part of the analysis that my dad was pointing out to me. …But a close reading of the poem proves otherwise. It does not moralize about choice; it simply says that choice is inevitable, but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived it. I also found the  summary and analysis in Robert Frost’s Early Poems  helpful and interesting. Do you have a poem, song or quote that inspires you? If so, I invite you to send me a draft guest post for my poetry blogs. I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.