Erode... Naught Taken, mused by Robert Frost Options

[JustDaniel]

Erode... Naught Taken

I have walked two roads as I’ve scribbled verse;
they converge as one in yon yellowed wood.
If I’d chosen the other, would I be the worse?
Have I looked down the one as far as I could?
I’d spent precious time in the undergrowth
of the wanderlust path, and I got nowhere,
so I reasoned I’d rhyme, taking something of both
to discover perchance what each sought to share.
Some traveler friends bid farewell as I strode,
but cautiously, marching a shadowy path
to somewhere or other past empty abodes —
encountered cold shoulders… occasional wrath.

passers-by poked fun
throughout a fallen winter;
still life sprang anew

two trails
diverged from woods
in pungent yellow streams;
so I set a new course through trees
relieved


© MLee Dickens’son 09 Feb 2006


a musing from Robert Frost's

The Road Not Taken

[Guest_Cathy_*]

Hi Daniel,

I've often wondered if my life would be different had I taken the other way! I'm not sure that I'd really want to know though...

I want to get a closer look before actually offering a critique but I did want to ask... why the last two verses? And why did you opt for no rhyme when the rest of the poem does? Is this a form I don't know about? LOL

Cat

I have walked two roads as I’ve scribbled verse;
they converge as one in yon yellowed wood.
If I’d chosen the other, would I be the worse?
Have I looked down the one as far as I could?
I’d spent precious time in the undergrowth
of the wanderlust path, and I got nowhere,
so I reasoned I’d rhyme, taking something of both
to discover perchance what each sought to share.
Some traveler friends bid farewell as I strode,
but cautiously, marching a shadowy path
to somewhere or other past empty abodes —
encountered cold shoulders… occasional wrath.

passers-by poked fun
throughout a fallen winter;
still life sprang anew

two trails
diverged from woods
in pungent yellow streams;
so I set a new course through trees
relieved

[jgdittier]

Hi Daniel,

I've often wondered if my life would be different had I taken the other way! I'm not sure that I'd really want to know though...

I want to get a closer look before actually offering a critique but I did want to ask... why the last two verses? And why did you opt for no rhyme when the rest of the poem does? Is this a form I don't know about? LOL

Cat

I have walked two roads as I’ve scribbled verse;
they converge as one in yon yellowed wood.
If I’d chosen the other, would I be the worse?
Have I looked down the one as far as I could?
I’d spent precious time in the undergrowth
of the wanderlust path, and I got nowhere,
so I reasoned I’d rhyme, taking something of both
to discover perchance what each sought to share.
Some traveler friends bid farewell as I strode,
but cautiously, marching a shadowy path
to somewhere or other past empty abodes —
encountered cold shoulders… occasional wrath.

passers-by poked fun
throughout a fallen winter;
still life sprang anew

two trails
diverged from woods
in pungent yellow streams;
so I set a new course through trees
relieved

Dear Daniel,
Ingenious title followed by tongue-in-cheek message delivered in your highly imaginatively way.
I believe Frost used yellow to suggest the leaves had turned and therefore it was a fall day.
You've used yellow somewhat differently so I can see easily why you set a new course.
I suppose one could figure "woods" to be poetry and two trails as being R&M and fv. Were that the case, wasted time in the wanderlust path would be...?
Cheers, Ron jgd