Frost, American Self-Determination, and Why I Miss Haskins
Mar 10, 2018 20:09:09 GMT -5
michaelw likes this
Post by Christine on Mar 10, 2018 20:09:09 GMT -5
I thought of you guys when I came across this article in the Paris Review (from 2015). You poets, intellectuals, and otherwise savvy types probably already know this, but I had NO IDEA, and learning about it provided the most pleasurable sensation of irony I've had in quite a while.
The article discusses the real meaning of Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken." As is (apparently) the case with many others, I easily recall the line "I took the road less traveled by / And that has made all the difference" and interpreted it as representative of the sort of grit, individuality, fearlessness, and self-determination that leads to success. (In my defense: (a) I never studied the poem; I'm not even sure I ever read it in full and (b) I'm an American who was raised by Republicans.)
So, no, it does not represent any of those things. Instead, deliciously, fabulously, it represents the re-telling of one's life in order to be the sort of person who is gritty, individualist, fearless, and self-determining.
And almost everyone gets it wrong.
This entire nationwide misconception makes me grin. I am filled with glee. I can't even stand it.
I hope you guys like it too.
Cheers
P.S. If it's not clear why I miss Haskins, just go read some poetry by Haskins.
The article discusses the real meaning of Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken." As is (apparently) the case with many others, I easily recall the line "I took the road less traveled by / And that has made all the difference" and interpreted it as representative of the sort of grit, individuality, fearlessness, and self-determination that leads to success. (In my defense: (a) I never studied the poem; I'm not even sure I ever read it in full and (b) I'm an American who was raised by Republicans.)
So, no, it does not represent any of those things. Instead, deliciously, fabulously, it represents the re-telling of one's life in order to be the sort of person who is gritty, individualist, fearless, and self-determining.
And almost everyone gets it wrong.
This is the most remarkable thing about “The Road Not Taken”—not its immense popularity (which is remarkable enough), but the fact that it is popular for what seem to be the wrong reasons. It’s worth pausing here to underscore a truth so obvious that it is often taken for granted: Most widely celebrated artistic projects are known for being essentially what they purport to be. When we play “White Christmas” in December, we correctly assume that it’s a song about memory and longing centered around the image of snow falling at Christmas. When we read Joyce’s Ulysses, we correctly assume that it’s a complex story about a journey around Dublin as filtered through many voices and styles. A cultural offering may be simple or complex, cooked or raw, but its audience nearly always knows what kind of dish is being served.
Frost’s poem turns this expectation on its head. Most readers consider “The Road Not Taken” to be a paean to triumphant self-assertion (“I took the one less traveled by”), but the literal meaning of the poem’s own lines seems completely at odds with this interpretation. The poem’s speaker tells us he “shall be telling,” at some point in the future, of how he took the road less traveled by, yet he has already admitted that the two paths “equally lay / In leaves” and “the passing there / Had worn them really about the same.” So the road he will later call less traveled is actually the road equally traveled. The two roads are interchangeable.
According to this reading, then, the speaker will be claiming “ages and ages hence” that his decision made “all the difference” only because this is the kind of claim we make when we want to comfort or blame ourselves by assuming that our current position is the product of our own choices (as opposed to what was chosen for us or allotted to us by chance). The poem isn’t a salute to can-do individualism; it’s a commentary on the self-deception we practice when constructing the story of our own lives. “The Road Not Taken” may be, as the critic Frank Lentricchia memorably put it, “the best example in all of American poetry of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” But we could go further: It may be the best example in all of American culture of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Frost’s poem turns this expectation on its head. Most readers consider “The Road Not Taken” to be a paean to triumphant self-assertion (“I took the one less traveled by”), but the literal meaning of the poem’s own lines seems completely at odds with this interpretation. The poem’s speaker tells us he “shall be telling,” at some point in the future, of how he took the road less traveled by, yet he has already admitted that the two paths “equally lay / In leaves” and “the passing there / Had worn them really about the same.” So the road he will later call less traveled is actually the road equally traveled. The two roads are interchangeable.
According to this reading, then, the speaker will be claiming “ages and ages hence” that his decision made “all the difference” only because this is the kind of claim we make when we want to comfort or blame ourselves by assuming that our current position is the product of our own choices (as opposed to what was chosen for us or allotted to us by chance). The poem isn’t a salute to can-do individualism; it’s a commentary on the self-deception we practice when constructing the story of our own lives. “The Road Not Taken” may be, as the critic Frank Lentricchia memorably put it, “the best example in all of American poetry of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” But we could go further: It may be the best example in all of American culture of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
This entire nationwide misconception makes me grin. I am filled with glee. I can't even stand it.
I hope you guys like it too.
Cheers
P.S. If it's not clear why I miss Haskins, just go read some poetry by Haskins.
