By Mara Shapiro from the U.S.
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.
- Robert Frost
This Robert Frost poem has been long imprinted in my heart. It was one of my mom’s favorite poems. My mom passed away from aggressive breast cancer when I was 8 years old. Ever since, this poem has felt like a connection between my mom and me. For years I have turned to this poem when I have longed to feel her close. However, this poem has also become a roadmap for me in many ways, a guide for finding my way through life’s adversity (of which there has been plenty).
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
This famous excerpt from the poem hits home the most and is the part most up for interpretation by readers. Two roads diverged in a wood… and I took the one less traveled by… and that has made all the difference. In the context of my life with chronic illness, the two roads here are being healthy and being ill. As one with a chronic illness, we are on the road less traveled. I interpret this last line to mean that my chronic illness journey has impacted me so strongly, led to so much personal growth, made me the person I am today and that it has made all the difference. It is often through the journey and experiences that are less appealing and less traveled that we find out the most about ourselves. Adversity and our response to it are our biggest teachers. That has certainly been the case for me.
For me, this poem has allowed me to see the meaning and value my chronic illness, my journey on the road less traveled, has had on my life. That is not to say that there have been countless times where I wished I was on the road more traveled, the journey of a healthy person, but through acceptance and perspective, this poem helped me see that I am grateful for the path I am on (even though it was forced and not a choice I made because the path looked like it needed more wear, to use the words of Robert Frost).
The general theme of this poem implies having a choice in which road one gets to chose. In many situations in life that is the case. However, I never viewed this poem within that scope because the roads in my life have been characterized by frequent dead ends, U-turns, K-turns, and certainly a few lonesome, unpaved, rugged roads. While the interpretation of this poem falls naturally onto those who have faced some difficult choices in their life and had to later grapple if they had taken the right path, mine differs slightly and takes into account such forced early life adversity that a lot of us with chronic illness can relate to.
I want to thank Robert Frost for helping me see that while the path of being ill is not the path I would have chosen, it has certainly made all the difference in shaping who I am and who I was meant to become.
The poem has been popularly interpreted to mean a lot of different things about the power (or lack thereof) of choice and how to retrospectively make meaning out of said choices. However, I have always had a different interpretation of this poem, as did my mom. We think of the roads, not as choices where we had full agency but rather roads that life put us on anyway and most importantly, the CHOICE we all have in making the most out of whatever road we end up on. Losing a parent as a child certainly puts you on the road less traveled. Being diagnosed and living with multiple chronic medical conditions, especially through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood also puts you on the road less traveled. Where I look to Frost and think of choice is in the last line, “And that has made all the difference.” I have been on the road less traveled my whole life, and it has made all the difference. I would not be ME without my journey on the road less traveled. Despite the suffering, the grief, the pain of this road we’re on together as people with chronic illness, I would not change the person it has made me.
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I’m curious to know your thoughts and interpretations of “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. Post a comment here or reach out to me on Instagram @m.shappy, I’d love to hear from you!
Featured Photo by Mohan Reddy on Pexels.
This article is sponsored by Lyfebulb.
Lyfebulb is a patient empowerment platform, which centers around improving the lives of those impacted by chronic disease.