One of the most enduring poems in American high school English classes is Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken." The speaker describes seeing two paths as he walks in a wood and briefly debates which path to take.
The last stanza of the poem describes the speaker having apparently made his choice: "I took the road less traveled by/and that has made all the difference." The classic interpretation of the poem, the one pretty much every kid who studied it in high school knows, is that "we" should not take the path that everyone else has taken; we should find our individual voices and doing so will make all the difference in our lives.
First, let's appreciate the irony of such a reading being posited -- or, I suggest, imposed -- in one of the greatest conformity factories on the planet: the American high school. If it's not the teachers who are imposing their wills on those who might be different, the students themselves do a fine job of policing, with their constant drive for exclusivity. Individuality in such a locus is a dangerous thing, as guidance counselors were reminded of after Columbine. And here the kids are sitting in English class being told to follow their own path!!! Fabulous. (Good chance to teach the concept of "irony," eh?)
Second, look at the poem carefully: In the second stanza, the speaker makes the point that while it might have appeared that the road he was taking was less traveled by, the truth is: "the passing there/had worn them really about the same." Thus, the speaker is not really choosing the road less traveled by. It's also worth mentioning the title: it's "The Road Not Taken." Is Frost talking about the road that he did not take, or is he again referring to the road that the speaker did take but he's now representing it as less traveled in the final stanza?
And let's look again at the last stanza. Frost shifts time here; he has the speaker speculate that "somewhere ages and ages hence" he (the speaker) will be telling this story to someone. Remember that, because what he imagines himself to be telling of the story is in fact a lie. He did not take the road less traveled. That is a myth. His imagined future telling of this incident is going to perpetuate a fictional account, and indeed an account that is now perpetuated by high school English teachers all the time.
And it's still perpetuated; when I was in high school, that's the interpretation we got, and in fact when we graduated two years after I first studied Frost's poem, "the road not taken" was the theme, and we had speeches by several of our classmates on the subject -- including yours truly. I was a sucker for that interpretation, too. (I will admit it today: I basically wrote the speech so I could sneak in a quote from the Violent Femmes' first album. Thrill of my life: meeting Gordon Gano after a gig and telling him so. And no, I didn't quote from "Add it Up." ) But such an interpretation doesn't really hold up.
In teaching Frost's poetry to my college students, I asked about their prior experiences with this poem, and indeed one student said that in high school, he pointed out the fact that the roads were worn basically the same. The result? He was just told he was wrong. He suspects that his teacher didn't want to complicate matters for the rest of the class. (Amazingly this kid still came to college to become an English major!) So much for choosing roads or interpretations less traveled!
Can we please please please make this point in 10th grade instead of waiting for college? It's time we stop perpetuating literary lies! The poem is much richer than our secondary education teachers gave it -- and us -- credit for.
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