FREE ESSAY ON ROBERT FROST

ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 
The key word here is "two". Throughout our lives, we constantly face decisions where we
have two choices. Even when it seems there is only one choice, we can decide to either do
it, or not do it; so there are still two alternatives. 
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood 
Then there are times we wish we could do both; have our cake and eat it too! We know we
cannot, so we must agonize over the choices; weigh the possibilities. 
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 
Then took the other, 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, 
Decisions, decisions! So, what we do is come up with some justification for the choice we
have made, even though we are already questioning our decision, even as we make it. When
the choices are so close to being equal, does it really make any difference? Is the fact
that fewer people have done it this way going to give us any "edge" over the competition?
Or have we just leveled the playing field? 
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black. 
Is it frightening to us that few people have taken either path? What unknowns lurk beyond
the next bend? 
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. 
Well, if this one does not work out, I will try the other one; or maybe I will try it one
day anyway, just to see if it is better. Or maybe not. Have you ever heard of a "round
tuit"? "I'll do it when I get around to it." Sometimes you know, you just know that you
never will! Round tuits come in a roll, like a loaf of bread. You slice them off as you
go, and eventually you come to the "heel" of the loaf. Yes, there is an "end tuit"! We do
run out of time. 
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I—
Sometime down the line, we may look back and reflect upon this. We may never know if the
other choice would have been better, or if it would even have been any different at all.
Chances are, we will discover that it really has not been so bad after all. (This is
where I would sigh.). I would wonder, if I had it all to do over again, wouldn't I do it
exactly the same way. Or if I had gone the other way, wouldn't I be sitting here asking
myself how this path would have turned out, had I gone this way? Whatever the result, it
was that little whim that little difference in detail, that sudden intuition that
convinced us to choose the path that we did. We know it made a difference, but in this
case, our 20/20 hindsight does not look around corners, so we will never know what that
difference was! 
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 
Perhaps the difference is in our own minds, our own talents, and our own abilities.
Perhaps these things would blossom and grow no matter what we chose to do. Perhaps we
missed an excellent opportunity at some point because of something we did not do. Or
maybe, just maybe, things turned out as well as they did because of that decision we
made, not in spite of it! Maybe we "did good"!