1st Reading
The words “the road not taken,” are a famous phrase. The beginning of the poem always sticks out to me for that reason. The overall meaning of the poem is very clear and concrete to me, how Robert Frost is faced with two different paths in front of him and he chose to take the more difficult, unfamiliar one to him. And in the end, he doesn’t regret it. Frost’s use of language and imagery stands out to me, especially when he writes phrases such as “because it was grassy and wanted wear,” and “in leaves, no step had trodden black,” that project this type of elegance that poets strive for. The overall meaning is to not let a difficult journey stop you from reaching your goals, and Frost hammers that point home in the very last stanza of the poem.
2nd Reading
- this time I could see the poem more visually due to just having watched the Ted-Ed video. But instead of just having a set scenery, my imagination went beyond just seeing a road in the woods. I had the previous video in my mind and saw the ‘roads’ as two doors in a house, two paths on a street, etc.
- After reading it for a second time, the original meaning seemed to grow for me. I was able to see in my mind what would happen if I actually took ‘the road less traveled.’
- Again, Frost does a good job at using very descriptive language, but it was as if the video helped stemmed and grow what Frost had already written.
- I think visual stiction is a very real thing, and the video made me excited to see how I would intercept it after hearing the song.
3rd Reading
- After reading the poem for a third time directly after hearing Jacob Collier perform it as a song, it was impossible for me not to read it in the same tune. I think I did it unintentionally but realized by the end that I was reading it as Collier performed it. Earworms and I have a love-hate relationship.
- While the video provided more of a visual stimulation to the imagery that was already presented by frost, the song seemed to do something different entirely. The beats in between the verses and the different frames really served such a unique purpose the third time around.
- After some time though, Collier’s voice started to get annoying, and after reading it for a third time in the same tune, I was about done with the poem and had truly gotten annoyed with it.
4th Reading
- The storyboard was honestly how I sort of envisioned Frost’s poem in the first place. I think that’s partial because I’ve had to analyze this poem in school and attached a very cartooned version of it in my head.
- Reading the poem after looking at the storyboard helped me break the story down into parts in my head. Unlike the video after the second reading, it wasn’t as visually interesting but reminded me of how I would have broken this poem down in middle school or high school.
- The text captions had broken down the poem in a very straightforward, academic way.
5th Reading
- It’s so interesting to see the retrospective different interruptions of ’two raids diverged’ because a lot of what was seen was literal interruptions, and this one took a much more modern look.
- David Orr’s text really put the poem into a broader perceptive, especially by saying how it’s a part of ‘American culture,’ and implying that it’s not heavily a part of their cultures outside the US. How the poem in the commercial was used with the sense the audience would KNOW where the poem was from but that’s not entirely always the case due to people’s different cultural and social experiences.
- It is wild to think about how widespread this poem was and still is. Especially from what I said in my first response about how there are some very iconic lines in the poem. Especially the mix-up in titles from ‘the road not taken to ‘the road less traveled’ DUE to the popularity of the less traveled line.
Last Reading
My view of the poem from when I first read it versus now has changed drastically. What really cemented those changes were the Ted-Ed video and the David Orr articles. Which helped me critically analyze the poem through a new lens. I had interpreted the poem as many have, that the one considered to be ‘less traveled’ is the one that will be the most emotionally gratifying. But with Orr’s article in mind, I don’t necessarily think that’s true. It’s also good to consider that if the original meaning was intended to be closer to Orr’s, then the shift must have happened somewhere along the line culturally and socially and has stayed that way. While before I read it as Frost writing about taking a more changeling road but being happy with the results, I see it more interchangeable and individually, that the two roads truly depend on the speaker and what they consider difficult. The Ted-Ed video helped me visualize the poem even more than I had been, it put the images to words, which is always helpful. I have a very big imagination and that’s on of the reasons why the video stuck with me for as long as it has. I also never really considered Frost’s audience before, but I don’t it would be a bunch of middle schoolers, which is another reason to consider how the poem had gotten such a simplified meaning to the original.
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