The Road Less Traveled...

Throughout my life I have referenced the poem, "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.  It is a beautifully written poem about making a difficult choice.  I have referenced this poem many times in my life when I couldn't choose the right path or when I was unsure of my next step.  There have been situations that seemed difficult at the time but in referencing this poem I realized that the more difficult path is sometimes the better path to take.  I have even referenced this poem when giving out relationship advice to a girlfriend who could not choose between two men.  I had no idea from my first glance at this poem in a junior high English class where the "path" of this poem would take me.

Robert Frost, himself, said that this poem was written for a friend who had gone off to war and didn't feel he had made the right decision and that decision had plagued him for the rest of his life.  Several interpretations have been made about this poem including the meaning, personification, and references to literary devices...

meaning:
The literal meaning of this poem by Robert Frost is pretty obvious. A traveler comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go to continue his journey. After much mental debate, the traveler picks the road "less traveled by."
The figurative meaning is not too hidden either. The poem describes the tuogh choices people stand for when traveling the road of life. The words "sorry" and "sigh" make the tone of poem somewhat gloomy. The traveler regrets leaves the possibilities of the road not chosen behind. He realizes he probably won't pass this way again.

devices:
There are plenty literary devices in this poem to be discovered. One of these is antithesis. When the traveler comes to the fork in the road, he wishes he could travel both. Within the current theories of our physical world, this is a non possibility (unless he has a split personality). The traveler realizes this and immediately rejects the idea.
Yet another little contradiction are two remarks in the second stanza about the road less traveled. First it's described as grassy and wanting wear, after which he turns to say the roads are actually worn about the same (perhaps the road less traveled makes travelers turn back?).

personification:
All sensible people know that roads don't think, and therefore don't want. They can't. But the description of the road wanting wear is an example of personification in this poem. A road actually wanting some as a person would. However: some believe this to be incorrect and believe "wanting wear" is not a personification, but rather older English meaning "lacking". So it would be "Because it was grassy and lacked wear;".

I can't even count the number of times on both hands that I have referenced this poem in my everyday life throughout my life...relationships, family circumstances, children, college, career changes, life changes...but, lately, it has become my means of explaining Autism.  I know, right?  Autism?  Strange as it may sound...this poem has a way of educating someone on how the autistic brain might work.  I love to find a deeper meaning in literature for a completely different purpose than the author intended. 

People are uneducated and ignorant when it comes to Autism.  It is a disability...not an inability.  They think Autism is mental retardation.  They believe Autism means weird, strange, deaf, and mute.  It shouldn't be too hard to understand.  Autism is a disorder (not disease) in which the brain is wired differently from neurotypical minds.  It means that a person with a neurotypical mind might go about their learning process by acheiving their goals in a point A to point B process.  Autistic people take the long road home, so to speak.  It does not mean they are any less intelligent or that they are disabled.  It just means that they take the scenic route...or the road less traveled.  The outcomes are the same.  They just take a different path to reach their destination.

The poem "The Road Not Taken" describes two paths that come together and meet in a fork in the road.  One of the paths is short, well-beaten, aesthetically pleasing, much shorter, and the path that is publicly acceptable.  The other path is over-grown, cluttered, vacant, difficult and treacherous, and extremely lengthy to travel.   Both roads end up at the same fork in the road.  This is a fine explanation of the neurotypical mind versus the autistic mind...very different but equally intelligent.  Autism is the road less traveled but the I think it is the path in which the best lessons are learned.


The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost

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 I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.