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Brian Ghilliotti

English 102

Literature and Composition

July 27, 2019

Just Bushwhack

Part One: Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Less Traveled, can be seen as a situation involving
someone contemplating a choice in life, and subsequently picking one path on the basis that it
“less traveled by”, offering the most risk and opportunity. The final line can be seen as the
choice maker either being happy or disappointed with the choice of taken the less traveled
path, it is not clear from the final line:

“And that has made all the difference.”

All we can deduce is that the variable of “less traveled by” was the primary reason for the
outcome of the decision that was made.

However, when looking at the poem more carefully, the speaker seems to reconnoiter on both
paths, evidenced by lines 6-12, and concludes that both paths are really the same, and
ultimately remained in a state of indecision.

The speaker, as evidenced in stanza 4, makes their decision, using the rationale that they can
always go back and the other path. However, as in life, many choices have irreversible
consequences, which the speaker acknowledges in the last lines of stanza 4:

“Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.”

Looking at the sites and sign posts found in the middle of the poem, the reader may see the
final lines a little differently. The reader may look at the final stanza as the speaker’s effort to
justify the reasoning behind the path choice they made, no matter what their impacts were.

Ultimately, the poem is NOT about the path the speaker took, and in the commentator’s
opinion, his speculation and justifications are useless, since they will never know the variables,
and their life impacts, presented by the path not taken.

This opinion makes commentator the a “spiritual grey alien”, perfectly synthesizing spirituality
with cold logic. Life is about making choices based on the balance of knowing what we can
know and rationalizing risks related about what we cannot know.

The commentator likes Davis Farragut’s (of Civil War fame) perspective: “Damm the torpedos…
full speed ahead”. As Farragut’s military intelligence officer, I would encourage him to get as
much battle field intelligence as time would allow before he gave the order full speed ahead.
Life very rarely presents scenarios where one faces decisions without much in terms of
changing variables, as Frost seemingly describes in his poem.

Part 2:

The poem’s style is reflective overall. The reader, as they read the poem, may be a little
confused whether the choice being made is in the present tense or if the choice has already
been made. The poem is structured to quickly shift the point of view from current to past
reflective, symbolizing how quickly choice impacts can begin taking affect on people’s lives.

The reader may notice the transition from a present tense situation to the past with following
lines (11-12):

“And both that morning equally lay


In leaves no step had trodden black.”

Those readers who miss this transition may continue to read the poem and conclude that the
outcome, and the variable that led to the path, being less trodden, made the difference, wether
good or bad. In this case, the last two lines would be mistakenly seen as a recent past
consequence, rather than reflection on a long term impact.

The commentator offers different perspective on Robert Frost’s dilemma by asking “Why not just
bushwhack between both trails?” Ironically, the commentator actually agrees with the mis-
conclusions that can be derived from the phrase “the one less traveled by”. One should live life
to the fullest by taking the more challenging and unconventional options. If there are no gains,
and even costs, there are always spiritual gains from such choices. Those with this perspective
place spiritual development as more important than practical development. They also hold that
in many cases paths were created to keep people from discovering the real truths in life.

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