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For many years, we’ve used a quotation from Robert Frost’s Poem, The Road Not Taken, but mostly on handouts within the office, especially the cover of our “Wiser Buyer Guidebook” passed out at orientation sessions.

On the other hand, we’ve searched for years for something simple that suggests that we’re truly different, which word itself, overused, says, “Yeah, sure!”

In a single memorable moment, a “Duh!” epiphany, we finally put this together, and have started using the last stanza from the poem in our literature, first on the front pages of our web sites.

It stakes a claim to “different” in language more dramatic than the oft-overused word itself, and is a rather poetic version of “Off the beaten track!”

It doesn’t necessarily say how we’re different, but it emotionally and dramatically claims that we are different…leaving it up to the reader to discover why and how.   And of course, it doesn’t take long in the body of the first pages of our web sites for us to tell them.

It promises to be helpful in dramatizing the facts, creating a bit of curiosity and intrigue, creating a more fertile field of understanding, planting a seed of uber-interest.

And then it suggests that they may want to ply this “less trod” path with us, sharing the adventurous courageous elements.  And that seems to be striking a chord.  All of us want to do things differently, to be smart about our decisions, to be courageous and adventurous.

So we’re having a good time with it, and so wanted to share this little insight with you.  You might have comments to us as to how it strikes you.

The following is paraphrased from Wikipedia on the subject, and recites the poem in its entirety at the end.

Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken

Interpretation

The poem has two recognized interpretations. One is a more literal interpretation, while the other is more ironic.Readers often see the poem literally, as an expression of individualism. Critics typically view the poem as ironic. – “‘The Road Not Taken,’ perhaps the most famous example of Frost’s own claims to conscious irony and ‘the best example in all of American poetry of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.’” And Frost himself warned “You have to be careful of that one; it’s a tricky poem – very tricky.”

Literal interpretation

According to the literal interpretation, the poem is inspirational, a tribute to individualism and non-conformism.  The poem’s last lines, where the narrator declares that taking the road “less traveled by” has “made all the difference,” can be seen as a declaration of the importance of independence and personal freedom. “The Road Not Taken” seems to illustrate that once one takes a certain road, there is no turning back. Although one might change paths later on, the past cannot be changed. It can be seen as showing that choice is very important, and is a thing to be considered.This interpretation is connected with misremembering the title as “The Road Less Traveled”, since it places emphasis on the choice made, not the opportunities foregone. 

Ironic interpretationThe ironic interpretation, widely held by critics, is that the poem is instead about regret and personal myth-making, rationalizing our decisions.In this interpretation, the final two lines:I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. are ironic – the choice made little or no difference at all, the speaker’s protestations to the contrary. The narrator admits in the second and third stanzas that both paths may be equally worn and equally leaf-covered, and it is only in his future recollection that he will call one road “less traveled by”.The sigh, widely interpreted as a sigh of regret, might also be interpreted ironically: in a 1925 letter to Crystine Yates of

The Poem

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.