shrug
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground You end up like a dog that's been beat too much Till you spend half your life just covering up Born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Got in a little hometown jam so they put a rifle in my hand Sent me off to a foreign land to go and kill the yellow man Born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Come back home to the refinery Hiring man says "son if it was up to me" Went down to see my V.A. man He said "son don't you understand now" Had a brother at Khe Sahn fighting off the Viet Cong They're still there he's all gone He had a woman he loved in Saigon I got a picture of him in her arms now Down in the shadow of penitentiary Out by the gas fires of the refinery I'm ten years burning down the road Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go Born in the U.S.A. I was born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. I'm a long gone daddy in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. Born in the U.S.A. I'm a cool rocking daddy in the U.S.A.Born down in a dead man's town
For sophomore English, my younger sister and I had the same teacher. One project the teacher had us do was to take a song about a social issue, and explore the issue through the focus of the song and then present our research. I used Mrs. McGrath to talk about war, which wasn't super exciting. My sister did Born in the USA (I just realized we both did Springsteen songs). I wasn't heavily involved in her research, but I remember her talking about how most people in the US it seemed completely misunderstood the song, but that abroad, it was well received for it's real message. It completely blew my sister's mind that Reagan used it.
I don't buy it. It seems perfectly reasonable that a road taken less would be equally worn, only narrower. Everything else hinges on the initial lemma, which I find false. I've heard a lot of 'deeper' interpretations of Frost, of everything from Mending Wall to Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. I don't tend to find them convincing. I think Frost is populist, targetting populist readers, and what metaphors he does use are obvious. There's nothing wrong with that; but that's how I see his work.that the two paths “equally lay / In leaves” and “the passing there / Had worn them really about the same.”
then, the speaker will be claiming “ages and ages hence” that his decision made “all the difference” only because
This is my first time reading this poem, however, I am familiar with the title and the messages that comes from the poem.
This is very interesting. As a Canadian who had never heard of the poem (only of the term "the road less traveled"), I found it very interesting - though after reading it, I found neither interpretations satisfactory to me. It seemed, to me, the poem was more about actually making decisions, and not looking back on them - because no one can read the future (just as the person could not see beyond the undergrowth), and either could take him anywhere. Because as far as I can tell, he never actually passed the intersection. The first verse, when he arrives, I assumed to also represent Spring for thematic reasons. The second, when he observes the second path, represents Summer as grass has actually been shown to grown. And he notes that both path most likely have been worn the same. In the third verse, he denotes that leaves no one had stepped in covered both paths. Now, unless something goes wrong - leaves only fall in Autumn. Note that he claims that he "kept the first [step]" for another day. The last two verses, to me, have a double-meaning - "knowing that way leads to way, I doubted if I should ever come back". I feel it is both a commentary on how much of an ultimatum most decisions are, as well as a story passage where he doesn't know if he should come back to this fork (decision) ever again - which to me also poses as some sort of evidence that each verse happens as he comes and goes to this fork. And finally, the last verse. To me, the sigh implies a less-than-ideal conclusion. And the fact that he took the "road less traveled by"? In some sort of twisted way... if, in a fork, two paths are "equally worn" - then the way less traveled would be backwards, for most likely very few people actually traveled the path in that direction. And that had made all the difference - and the whole difference being that, since he could not travel both, his indecision led him to know neither path. He had known that fork for presumably a year - but his non-commitment disallowed him seeing further than it. All of it simply because he could not travel both - which implies either that he cannot come back, or can only take that road again - which implies, he has to commit to a change for him to progress. As a side note, I also interpreted this progression as, in a twisted way, being left behind - by the first verse, the roads are described as well worn. By the second, they are at least grassy. And by the third, it's described as no-one having stepped on them. So his indecision also resulted in him being "left behind" at this decision - while everyone else around him grew, evolved, progressed, he had stayed at that very intersection. If we were to compare it to pop music (yes I know, bite me and laugh) it's less All Star and more of a warning against Bittersweet Symphony. Overall, though, 10/10 article. I don't remember the last time I was pushed to read and interpret poetry by an article.
Video referenced. I personally never imagined Frost's imagery to be quite so Kerouac-esque, but what every you say Ford.