THE PATH I FOLLOW
Over the hill and around the bend lies
the path I did not take. Circumstance,
chance, and choice were the guideposts and sources of misdirection to the path
I did follow.
So many of Life's experiences and
memories are dependent upon the path taken.
What at one time seems of primary interest and concern, can take on a completely
different significance later in Life.
The ROAD OF LIFE can be full
of great hardship, grief, loss, health issues and financial difficulties for
anyone -- No matter which Path is taken.
No matter the choices. No matter
the fates.
What matters the Path? What matters the Road? For -- The destination is the same no matter
the route -- death! Life, after
all then, is about the Journey!
RELATED THEMES:
Robert Lee Frost (born 26 Mar 1874 San Francisco, CA – death 29 Jan 1963 age Boston,
Massachusetts, 89) was an American poet.
He died in Boston, on January 29, 1963, of complications from prostate
surgery and is buried at the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont. His epitaph quotes a line from one of his
poems: "I had a lover's quarrel with the world." He is highly regarded for his realistic
depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from
rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine
complex social and philosophical themes.
One of the most popular and critically respected American poets of his
generation, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry of
original verse by an American author — 1924: "New Hampshire: A Poem with
Notes and Grace Notes; 1931: "Collected Poems"; 1937: "A Further
Range"; and 1943: "A Witness Tree".
In 1915, Robert Frost bought a farm in Franconia, New Hampshire, where he launched a career of writing, teaching, and lecturing. This family homestead served as the Frosts' summer home until 1938. It is maintained today as The Frost Place, a museum and poetry conference site. During the years 1916–20, 1923–24, and 1927–1938, Frost taught English at Amherst College in Massachusetts, notably encouraging his students to account for the myriad sounds and intonations of the spoken English language in their writing. The main library of Amherst College was named after him. He called his colloquial approach to language "the sound of sense." [NOTE: Amherst College in Massachusetts played an important role in the lives of Emily Elizabeth Dickinson and her immediate family. I mention Emily, for she is my DNA Cousin and we are both direct descendants of the same great grandfather ENSIGN Moses Payne Esquire (1581-1643).]
Robert Frost's Personal life
Robert Frost's personal life was plagued with grief and loss. In 1885 when Frost was 11, his father died of tuberculosis, leaving the family with just eight dollars. Frost's mother died of cancer in 1900. In 1920, Frost had to commit his younger sister Jeanie to a mental hospital, where she died nine years later. Mental illness apparently ran in Frost's family, as both he and his mother suffered from depression, and his daughter Irma was committed to a mental hospital in 1947. Frost's wife, Elinor, also experienced bouts of depression.
Elinor and Robert Frost had six children: son Elliot (1896–1904, died of cholera); daughter Lesley Frost Ballantine (1899–1983); son Carol (1902–1940, committed suicide); daughter Irma (1903–1967); daughter Marjorie (1905–1934, died as a result of puerperal fever after childbirth); and daughter Elinor Bettina (died just three days after her birth in 1907). Only Lesley and Irma outlived their father. Frost's wife, who had heart problems throughout her life, developed breast cancer in 1937, and died of heart failure in 1938.
The Road Not Taken
(A poem by Robert
Frost, published in 1916 in the collection Mountain Interval.)
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 marked 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 I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
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 marked 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 I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
SOURCE LINKS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(poem)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_Poetry
http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section7.rhtml
Audio and Youtube link below:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15717http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goc3f77bcXk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzUm0wqhE7E
About Robert Frost below:
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost
