From different genres of art, no other genre gets very deep into me like poetry. I like poetry very much that I skip pages of a novel or a short story to find short poems they have. It is likely a novel with opener or closing poem to be beautiful and strong with their messages. Like Chinua Achebe’s novel Things fall apart to begin with a poem of William Butler Yeats’s poem: The Second Coming,”.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
Or, the immortal lines of William Sheakspere “To be, or not to be” at his play “Hamlet” are some of the examples of poems making other art forms beautiful and powerful to resonate with a much wider audience.
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, ’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d.”
There are also other poems that are very powerful you wouldn’t forget. John Donne’s “Death Be not Proud”, John Milton’s “Paradise Lost”, T.S Eliot’s “Four Quartets” and William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” are among timeless poems. I like poetry for its brevity, beauty and its depth to touch human feeling and attempt to answer human’s philosphical question.
Equally significant to above poems, the poem by Robert Frost “THE ROAD NOT TAKEN” attracts readers begining from its powerful title. I was asking myself for long time what is in this poem. I was wondering what is in it to tell us. The message of the poem might be simply paraphrased “life is full of choices which will define our destinies.” But the poem can be interpreted to reader in away that he/she wants to relate. If it is for a single person like you and I, the road can symbolize “life.” But if it is for both of us together as people, we might take it as an adivise how make we our journey, our togetherness and our existence fruitful.
What is the road that already been taken so far? Where are we if incase we want to take the other path? How far have we gone in the wrong direction? What is the other road that is not taken so far? Is it really not taken? It was with this curosity I began to read the poem and look for analysis. My interest however isn’t just understanding the poem but it is contexualizing and using it into our context. According to Adrew Spacey, Robert Frost wrote this poem to highlight a trait of, and poke fun at, his friend Edward Thomas, an English-Welsh poet. When Thomas went out walking with Frost in England, he would often regret not having taken a different path. Thomas would sigh over what they might have seen and done and Frost thought this very romantic. Likewise, many of us wonder if we have taken different path in our life. What if I go the other way? What will be the result? We ask ourselves whether we have adequately exploited our chances. Are these the only alternatives we have? When we see it in broder sense, as a nation we are in such state. Ethiopians are wondering if there is another path that could have saved the country from war, hunger and poverty. We seek freedom, justice, peace, democracy and prosperity for ages but we found ourselves repeatedly in a situation we never imagined. Therefore, we might need to assess the path we have been following so far.
As the speaker in the poem is in dilemma, so are we in such confusion. It might be a decisive time to correct our path and make the future bright. Correcting oneself and choosing the better alternative isn’t always easy. That is why Robert told Thomas ““No matter which road you take, you’ll always sigh and wish you’d taken another.” Accordingly, it is significant to be confident and take responsibilty to our action.
For me the road that isn’t taken is to be generous; fighting greed that is in everyone and affecting every aspect of our lives. If we don’t allow greed to overtake their principles, we can compromise ones interest for the benefit of the whole. That brings peace and harmony. It is mandatory to take one of the roads; the high road or the low road. If we choose the right path even if it is difficult, it can control destiny . Our actions today have the capacity to decide our destiny. Frost describes the roads, the options very difficult to choose one from another. Life, our destines are such this but sacrifice one for the other. Our pride and greed are in one side and the opposite and the constructive ones are to be in the other. The choice will be left to us.
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.
BY: KFLEEYESUS ABEBE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 9 JUNE 2022
