On: Re: Why Nerds are Unpopular

  Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—  
  I took the one less traveled by,  
  And that has made all the difference. 

  - Robert Frost

I wish I had read this in 9th grade. Should be mandatory reading (and re-reading) for all high school freshmen.

You'd still be unpopular, but you'd care a lot less.

The poem was written as a cynical comment about Frost's friend Edward Thomas who was unpleasantly bemused by it. Thomas was the first to not get the joke.

It is popularly interpreted literally, as inspirational and individualist, but critics universally interpret it as ironic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken

Repeatedly Thomas would choose a route which might enable him to show his American friend a rare plant or a special vista; but it often happened that before the end of such a walk Thomas would regret the choice he had made and would sigh over what he might have shown Frost if they had taken a "better" direction. More than once, on such occasions, the New Englander had teased his Welsh-English friend for those wasted regrets. . . . Frost found something quaintly romantic in sighing over what might have been. Such a course of action was a road never taken by Frost, a road he had been taught to avoid.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/road.htm

It is popularly interpreted literally, as inspirational and individualist, but critics universally interpret it as ironic

I prefer the popular interpretation.

I also prefer the opinions of civilians over "critics".

   "Though as for that the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,"

Those lines always bugged me. They seem to run contrary to the rest of the poem.

I guess this explains it.

i agree, i recently had this thought about that stanza that might give some insight.

"and having perhaps the better claim/ because it was grassy and wanted wear"

to me that means that like every person wants to go were many haven't...

with the addition of "though as for that, the passing there/had worn them really about the same"

i make the conclusion that because ppl want to go were many havent, the paths have worn the same because as soon as one path appears less worn, people travel on it. on that basis the two paths have worn the same.

i have no experience with poems and im just writing a paper on this one and saw this post. hopefully my insight is helpful. take care.!

Thanks for this! You learn something new every day.

I'm curious how you found that out initially. I'm more focused on quantitative fields and would love to learn more about the liberal arts.

His biography (one that's out of print now).

Poems tend to make sense only once you already partly know the wisdom within them.

Could you clarify this?

(Perhaps with a poem.) :)

words weave a winding way

through thickets through traveled thought,

without wisdom wearily won

we trip, we tumble, we flop

Sounds Syllables Semantic Synapsis

Missing Meaning Men Meander

Wanting Wonder Where Wonder Wanes

Musical Mirrors Mussing Meaningless Means

amazing. You made my morning

Glad to hear it. ;-)

I read it in 8th. I hated it, since I had no idea what it was talking about, and seemed like just more of the usual crap they fed to us and tried to make it look as if it was very 'deep'. You just don't get poetry if you're forced to read it, and if you don't have a feel for what it's talking about beforehand.

I disagree.

I read that poem by high school. I knew what it meant, and took the road less traveled by. Of course, it wasn't that this poem was guiding me all along, but the metaphor applied. And I'm proud of what I accomplished in high school.

However, I still had a shitty time. High school was a metric ass-ton of shit...being the only dude trying to get into a good college was a very unpleasant high-school experience, rationalizations notwithstanding. You can't escape those four years when you're going through them, and self-talk is not very helpful.

Your mileage may vary, and I hope it does.