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Indecision may or may not be this man's biggest problem. All he can do is go left or right. It's not that big of a deal...or is it?
Odysseus should have checked out How to Return Home from War for Dummies. Step One: Do not mess with the son of a god. Actually, no need to read on...
The Road Not Taken 29610 Views
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Description:
Indecision may or may not be this man's biggest problem. All he can do is go left or right. It's not that big of a deal...or is it?
Transcript
- 00:04
The Road Not Taken, a la Shmoop. A man is traveling in the woods when he comes
- 00:10
across a fork in the road…
- 00:12
One way looks nice and grassy…
- 00:14
…but so does the other.
- 00:15
What does he do? Most high school valedictorians will tell
Full Transcript
- 00:19
you that Robert Frost’s famous poem The Road Not Taken is about exploring new trails
- 00:23
and challenging ourselves.
- 00:24
But is that guy in the woods really such a trailblazer?
- 00:29
He looks at one road, and it looks great…
- 00:32
…then he looks at the other, and it also looks pretty good…
- 00:37
…and he wishes he could just do both…
- 00:39
...and it takes him about two and a half stanzas to decide that they’re… really about the
- 00:45
same…
- 00:45
…so if the roads aren’t all that different, and he doesn’t feel that great about his
- 00:50
choice… what’s this poem actually about?
- 00:53
The value of being… wishy-washy?
- 00:54
All right, you’ve probably got something in common with that guy who just can’t decide
- 00:59
what to do.
- 01:00
What are your roads?
- 01:02
Maybe you’re deciding between colleges…
- 01:04
You can go to a small private liberal arts school, with tiny class sizes and long class
- 01:09
discussions…
- 01:09
…where you see everyone you know on a daily basis, and live a short walk from all your
- 01:13
friends …
- 01:14
…or you can go to a big school, have a ton of majors and classes to choose from…
- 01:19
…and be able to stand out when you want… or hide in the crowd.
- 01:25
Maybe that’s why Robert Frost’s speaker heaves a big ol’ sigh and just takes one
- 01:29
of the roads already…
- 01:29
…and then spends the rest of the poem thinking about how he could have taken the other.
- 01:34
So is this poem really about taking the path… less traveled… and never looking back?
- 01:40
Maybe it’s more about how hard it is to make a decision…
- 01:43
…but you still have to… ‘cause in life, you can’t do it all.
- 01:47
And it’s not like taking the road less traveled has made all the difference in a good way…
- 01:52
…it’s just that the speaker knows that if he had taken the other path, it would have
- 01:55
been a completely different experience…
- 01:57
…and it’s kind of a bummer that he can’t do both.
- 01:59
What do you think?
- 02:00
Is this poem about going after your dreams?
- 02:03
Or about not regretting your decisions?
- 02:05
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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