Thus begins the famous poem by Robert Frost. But what is the title of this poem? I googled the first line and saw two different titles on different sites:
Which one is the real title? Provide a cite.
Yes, I know this could be in Cafe Society, but I’m just looking for a factual answer, so I put it here in GQ.
I do not have a cite, but in actual collections of Frost’s poetry, at least one of them prepared for publication by himself, “The Road Not Taken” is the title. I believe the other title was hung on it by glurgistas.
If you really want a cite, the New Enlarged Pocket Anthology of Robert Frost’s Poems (Washington Square Press, Inc., New York, 1963) lists it as “The Road Not Taken.”
Because Frost says, “I-- I took the one less traveled by.” So he took the less traveled path.
But the title of the poem is the road that he didn’t take. So to some degree the poem is about the better-traveled path. Notice that he never says anything actually positive about the road less traveled–only that it made all the difference. Good differences? Bad differences? Both, almost certainly, yet there is something smuggish about that line that seems to imply that the author is pleased with his choice.
Or maybe “The Road Not Taken” refers the road that other people didn’t take . . . but I don’t think so, because it says, “the passing there / Had worn them really about the same.” So it’s the
I often ponder this topic a twenty minutes or so, and then my head explodes like an android on Star Trek.
I am unable to find a definitive answer, which I guess would be a copy of Bob’s original manuscript. Keep in mind that there may be no correct answer, given that many poets simply write the poetry, neglecting to give the poem any title at all.
As for me, I have always preferred “The Road Not Taken”. The poem is not about one of the two roads that happens to be less travelled, but it is rather about the paths in our lives that we have chosen not to take. “The Road Less Traveled” seems to refer to the road itself, whereas “The Road Not Taken” seems to refer to the choices we make.
The Road Less Travelled is the name of a self-help book by M. Scott Peck, and it was a best-seller and very famous, so I suspect that’s the source of the confusion.
I’ve never seen it titled as anything but “The Road Not Taken.” Besides, “The Road Less Traveled” is a rather dull and all-too-literal title. “The Road Not Taken” is more evocative and poetic.
I’m with you, Podkayne. When I was younger, I always thought it meant “be daring! Be different! Take the road other people haven’t! Go, you rebel! Go!!!”
Then, about a year ago, I read it again. I swear that “Though as for that the passing there - Had worn them really about the same,” wasn’t there 20 years ago. It wasn’t, it wasn’t! 'Cause that means (gasp) other people have been “rebels” too! Nothing I do is unique or original or even worth fretting over all that much! In the end, it’s only a quiet sigh of regret for things *not *done, it’s not a rallying cry to do things. The emphasis isn’t on the path I chose to take, it’s on the path I didn’t take - the road “not taken” by me, not “not taken” by others!
Me, I always figured that the particular choice recorded in the poem is Frost’s decision to be an artist, rather than some more “practical” career. Looked at that way, “though as for that, those passing there had worn them really both about the same” could be taken to mean that though there are far fewer artists in the world, artists have had as much impact on the world as practical folks.
And I have the darn thing memorized, but all these years I’ve been labelling it with the wrong title. Huh.
