Thank you for this reflection and for the Frost poem within it.
As it happens, I spent this afternoon transcribing my favourite poems into the blank pages of a book I was sent recently: By Heart: 101 poems to commit to memory, selected by Ted Hughes.
I have decided to learn the ones I love in this selection 'by heart', both in order to exercise my memory muscle and to ponder the words of these poems when I recite them to myself.
Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening wAs the first I learnt. I have now memorised 10 poems - and was planning to look up The Road Less Traveled when I happened to read your essay. Now I have transcribed it!
And I also wrote an article about poetry recently for an online magazine, in which I defined poetry as 'the language of the soul' - which of course it is.
This all sounds delightful, Francis, thank you for the comment! Memorizing poetry is an old-fashioned practice that needs to be revived! I enjoy memorizing passages from Shakespeare and performing them for my students. That's probably the point when they conclude that I am indeed a madman, but that's okay—they need to hear Shakespeare's words recited by someone who has fallen in love with those words.
And I meant to add, as you say, that great poems always say much more that their author is aware of. When I think of The Road not Taken I think of the beginning of St John's Gospel in which he says 'God who enlightens every man born into this world...'
I take this to mean that at some time in our lives God offers us the choice of the narrow road leading to Him - or the broad road that doesn't.
We do indeed, and that's why Frost's poem continues to resonate strongly in the human psyche—even if he didn't immediately recognize the depth of what he had written.
Thank you for this reflection and for the Frost poem within it.
As it happens, I spent this afternoon transcribing my favourite poems into the blank pages of a book I was sent recently: By Heart: 101 poems to commit to memory, selected by Ted Hughes.
I have decided to learn the ones I love in this selection 'by heart', both in order to exercise my memory muscle and to ponder the words of these poems when I recite them to myself.
Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening wAs the first I learnt. I have now memorised 10 poems - and was planning to look up The Road Less Traveled when I happened to read your essay. Now I have transcribed it!
And I also wrote an article about poetry recently for an online magazine, in which I defined poetry as 'the language of the soul' - which of course it is.
This all sounds delightful, Francis, thank you for the comment! Memorizing poetry is an old-fashioned practice that needs to be revived! I enjoy memorizing passages from Shakespeare and performing them for my students. That's probably the point when they conclude that I am indeed a madman, but that's okay—they need to hear Shakespeare's words recited by someone who has fallen in love with those words.
And I meant to add, as you say, that great poems always say much more that their author is aware of. When I think of The Road not Taken I think of the beginning of St John's Gospel in which he says 'God who enlightens every man born into this world...'
I take this to mean that at some time in our lives God offers us the choice of the narrow road leading to Him - or the broad road that doesn't.
We all come to the place of the two roads...
We do indeed, and that's why Frost's poem continues to resonate strongly in the human psyche—even if he didn't immediately recognize the depth of what he had written.
I mean 'The Road Not Taken'.