60. ROBERT FROST: The road not taken
Zen Pencils regular Robert Frost is back with one of his most famous poems. It’s easy to misinterpret this poem as being about living an awesome life after making some hard or unconventional choices, but I don’t think it’s about that at all. I read it as being about how one’s life is the sum of their decisions, for better or worse, and wondering if those decisions were the right ones. Once you make an important decision, say to backpack around the world instead of going to college, you meet people, things happen to you, you fall in love, opportunities arise and your life kind of snowballs into decision after decision until you’re dead.
That choice to go to college instead of going travelling is similar to what I did. After college, one of my best friends went backpacking around Europe and worked in the UK for 2 years and begged me to go with him. But being ‘Mr. Responsible’, I decided to start working straight away and focus on my career. I’ve always kind of regretted not going with my friend BUT I’m also grateful I didn’t. Soon after my friend left I got a job in a newspaper as a graphic artist. This led to me befriending the comics editor, which led to me convincing the editor to publish one of my comic strips. That led to me drawing a new comic every week for FIVE YEARS. That constant practice was the training ground every artist needs to become a professional. Also if I went to Europe, I probably wouldn’t have moved to Melbourne and met the amazing group of friends I have here. So the decision to stay was the right one … I think.
Let me just qualify everything I’ve ever written on this site by saying I’m 29, I don’t really know anything about life and I’m just trying to figure this shit out … one comic at a time. I’m NOT trying to be a self-help guru – these quotes are for my own benefit as much as yours.
– I’m keen to know how you interpreted the poem. Let me know if you agree or disagree with my adaptation in the comments.
– This has been requested by a few people including Richard, Alex, Trevor and Amit. Sorry if I forgot anyone.
– Melbourne arts and culture website Milk Bar ran a short article and interview with me talking about the site.
Discussion (261) ¬
I would really like a print of this. Are you planning to offer this in the print shop?
Hey Ali, I’m working on the print – it’s proving difficult to rearrange into a less vertical size. I’ll hopefully get it sorted soon – thanks.
I’m by no means a graphic designer, but one way would be to diverge them out and then return them in a daimond-esque pattern.
And put the words in a whole line group-by-line group centered form in the middle
(centered)
and be one traveler, long i stood…
then took the other, as just as fair…
or even line-by line, i dunno…
Excellent interpretation!
I would really love a print of this as well!
Or you divide them over multiple prints, and hang them next to each other on a long wall.
Yes, please if you make a print of this please let us know.
Hi Gav, thank you for sharing your art and inspiration with us. I love visiting your site when I’m looking for a bit of perspective on life.
This is my absolute favourite of all your strips, and like many others, I’d love to buy a print of it. Crossing my fingers that it happens! 🙂
Hi Gavin, just checking if you’ve had any luck with the print version of this? It’s one of my favourites on zenpencils and would love to be able to have it on my wall!
Well, I think the poem says it best: Two roads diverged on a yellow road, and sorry I could not travel both. We can only take one road, and we always take what we can get from them.
For example, if you ever fell in love more than once, you know the feeling: that is the one, and no one could take her place. But, after the first time, that feeling has an “again” at the end of it. And if it goes bad, you will fall in love again and it will be like that, again. Because all roads are good. It’s just that they are all different.
You just leveled-up the complexity of your themes. I like that you resisted taking another shot at corporate America (c’mon–such a big target) and aimed at something more subtle here. Love how you leave us with a question. Thank you for your work.
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Well done! I love this one!
‘Let me just qualify everything I’ve ever written on this site by saying I’m 29, I don’t really know anything about life and I’m just trying to figure this shit out … one comic at a time. I’m NOT trying to be a self-help guru – these quotes are for my own benefit as much as yours.’
Which is why I like your comics so much. They don’t come across as pretentious or anything. They come across as honest, from the heart. I love your work and I urge you to keep going down the road you’ve chosen. Thanks.
Thanks Zapato!
Really awesome comic, Gav. Think you misspelled “Enrollment” though. Still amazing, as usual.
Both spellings are correct Alex, I made sure to check that!
You’re both correct. Gav used the British/Australian spelling of it. In the US it’s spelled with two ells: enrollment. Just depends where you’re from.
G
When I read the title, I was hoping this is how it would go. I’ve always believed that this poem represents two equally viable paths, and the only regret (so to speak) is that you can’t choose both.
But both may still be beautiful.
Thanks for illustrating this one, Gav. Love it.
As John Lennon once put it:
“Life’s whatever happens to you when you’ve got other plans.”
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”
So it is! (This is what happens when recalling from memory)
Very nicely envisioned and illustrated. Such talent and skill, thx for sharing them dude.
I really enjoy your art and your interpretation of the quotes. This is very uplifting.
Thank you!
Just great Gav. This was always one of my favorite Frost poems which we read in school. I’ve always marveled how even the most mundane of choices can sometimes take you on to a whole path to a life you could never have imagined, each decision leading to the next decision point. And my life has been just a marvelous adventure. And I don’t think you’re being preachy at all, but I appreciate you clarifying that at the end by saying these interpretations are as much for you as for us.
Good work, man!
Greg
And in the end there was only one road we could choose because the other would not have been us.Awesome job. Love it.
very nice, and an interesting take on this great poem. seems like Bob set the poem up, as you said, to show how decisions lead to decisions and the next thing you know your life happens. but i think that the ending was meant to be a surprise, to have greater impact on the reader, and to bring home the main point: be different, don’t walk the conventional path, take the road less taken and it will make all the difference.
of course maybe we’re all just interpreting in the way that best supports the paths we’ve chosen. 🙂
anyway, great comic, another of many!
But how could he ever know where the other path would lead him? He can only know where he ended up because of the path he took. Even though it does seem he advocates “taking the road less traveled,” he still could never know.
I see in this different path a possibility to integration, synthesis, creativity, diplomacy. Just like putting together the opposite and getting partnership as result. For example, someone with similar desire that end up working with tourism in an office or its own city (or even business travelling).
Or even having a main road with a second one as a hobby, for instance. Something that makes you feel you took your life by your own hands and did it your way, in the best you could.
I liked your interpretation – very Zen like.
I studied this poem for literature in jc, and your comic has brought the words to life beautifully. God that was powerful though. Great to see your still making amazing work!
I always thought this poem was an encouragement to follow the path less travelled by others (“I took the one less travelled by …”). But this comic gives a different interpretation, which surprised me. I had never considered the possibility that this poem might have more than one possible interpretation!
Beautiful representation of the poem
Love your work!Never stop
Awesome interpretation! And awesome comic! And congratulations for your sucess, as seen in the article you’ve shown!
I’m so glad you chose this poem to turn into a comic, it’s one that means a lot to me too. I had the choice of going to Europe or right into university. I saw my life plotted out like I knew exactly what I would become if I went straight into college, so I decided to “take the road less traveled by” and go to Europe before finishing my undergrad – and it DID make all the difference 🙂
it was really helpful for me and i would like every body to get help from it.
Never in my school days and college days, whenever I read this poem, have I interpreted it the way you have done: and boy oh boy, this makes far more sense than any other interpretation!!
Thanks a ton, Gav 🙂 You are awesome!
I had an entire paragraph to say but I just can’t get them out. The gist was I wanted to thank you for making this one. I’ve always wondered about the roads I could’ve taken and the roads I’m about to take and the what-could-have-beens and this poem’s just really special for me. The paragraph I had in mind was more articulate but okay, just… THANK YOU! 🙂
Great, great interpretation. I guess the one we take is the one that will make the difference in the end
“your life kind of snowballs into decision after decision until you’re dead”-haha its funny but true!
Another awesone one! Glad to read this one coz I’m also at diverging road right now where I love both future versions of myself.
You do very good work. Thank you.
http://phoenixascends.blogspot.com/2006/09/still-alive.html
Hi Gav,
Once upon a time i used to write poetry, and my friends really liked the two that I have posted above… they are basically the same story told in two songs…
I know these aren’t any good when you compare it to the poetry you often put on your site… but in case you do like them, please feel free to illustrate them… i would love to see them in an illustrated format
Thanks for sharing your work!
The real message is… it matters not which fork you take… just pick one and GO! (^= ^ )
Awesome! w the comic, I just picture running down on path, and as way leads to way just jolting left or right and running down way until another way 😀 Nice interpretation!
Great job Gav. That’s a truly touching piece. I myself can relate to it since I’m on this crossroads myself now. 22 years old, not sure what exactly I wanna go study and want to go on a trip and leave everything else for later. Plenty of roads to take, but you can’t walk them all. Not in one lifetime anyway. But as your comic shows, each way has its own advantages and adventures and beautiful moments and feelings.
Thanks for that! As the people above said, waiting for the print 🙂
I love this poem by Robert Frost. I love it even more how you interpreted it through your comics.. Great work!! 😀
It’s not really a matter of choice, but this reminds me the moment I realized how some simple coincidences completely changed my life and made me who I am today.
Because of a girl I liked as a kid, I started learning Karate. Because of Karate, I met what is now my best friend. He joined the Dojo too after a while. We met two twin girls there, and as one became his girlfriend, I realized I was in love with the other. She rejected me, and I was depressed for two years. In these two years I passed my time watching documentaries and drawing stuff.
Now I’m finally over it for about two years now, and I came out of depression with a sum of knowledge that makes my friends consider me a walking encyclopedia, an appreciation for life that makes my enjoy every little thing, and an extreme interest in art with hopes of some day becoming a professional artist, as well as the most important thing in life: Real, genuine friends. And I’m really happy.
Who knows who I would be if just one thing happened differently in the past. It’s kind of scary considering it.
Exactly what I’m talking about – your life would be so much different by not joining that Karate dojo
I liked how it started and ended in the same way, with the guy satisfied. We’ll actually never know which road would have been better, but what is important is you can keep on going, not looking back back.
excellent way of depicting it. May i share this with my students?
Of course!
Love the way you’ve used the red/blue pill analogy
I don’t think that’s a particularly accurate analogy, I think the red/blue is just to create visual distinction… That’s just me.
Never thought of the ‘Matrix’ while working on this – you give me too much credit!
I am a regular reader of ur blog and some of your work truly inspires me but this one, i m rather disappointed or probably, i am not able to relate the poem of Robert frost with your explanation. This is one of most written and recited poem which tells us to take a path which normally people dont take because its difficult, full of hurdles. It inspires me to do something different, unlike the normal people do. It tells me rise above the wave, flow in different direction, anyone can travel with the wave.
But, what i understand from your comic, you try to tell that evry path taken has a end which is different and probably satisfying. But for me, this poem says i ll be satisfied or i ll be happy only when i take that less traveled road. Initially i might find it difficult but the end will surely be joyous. This poem always preaches me to take that less traveled road because i strive for the satisfaction in the end and not the ease of the journey.
I might be wrong in interpreting your view but this is what i think so i wrote it.
We all can interpret it in different ways – whatever works for you is just as valid as mine
I don’t understand why so many people cling to the final two lines only, and thereby miss the point of this poem. Gavin has interpreted it perfectly. Frost clearly tells you more than once that the two roads are identical, equally trodden, and equally covered with leaves. He then says that he will look back from some future point and claim that the road HE took was the one less traveled, because that will lend importance and intent to the otherwise arbitrary decision he made in choosing one to follow.
Oof — FINALLY someone makes that point.
Of course, the poem is mostly about how there are some choices you have to make even if you don’t want to, and their outcomes make you what you are. But what makes this poem even better is that tinge of realization that no matter what arbitrary choices you make, you’ll probably rationalize them as meaningful decisions in retrospective. It could even be interpreted more cynically: most of the decisons that people defend were arbitrary choices in the first place.
Still, quite a moving strip!
Konst,I am very proud your interpretation is like mine.I’ve been readin first comments just thinking that my interpretation was somehow wrong yet there is someone else whose point of view is just like mine!
Again I appreciate your comment and GAV who makes us share our different views.
Loved it. Thank you for using one of my favorite. Though I never thought of this interpretation. I always thought of it in my own sense because I went about doing what friends and family expected but I wasn’t happy and I changed to do what I truly loved. And even though it isn’t as financially successful as before I am happier. And I believe I have grown as a person doing my own thing. And I do believe that you Gav have also taken the brave path by making this website and kudos to you too. But I liked your interpretation to. Makes more sense as I too have friends who are truly happy with a successful corporate lifestyle.
Thanks for all your comments – it’s so great that so many of you can relate to the story.
Love this one Gav- it’s so easy to always think of the “other” as better. Be it the other person, other country or other job. I think if you can take that road less travelled every day, be kind to a stranger, try something new, listen to a new story; to me that is the real way to enrich your life. The road less travelled is right in front of you!
Love this Gav. Just what I needed to read today!
Thanks Jess! Hope all is well with you and Al
No wonder the last few decades are a bit vague. I hope you do this one again
later in your life. You certainly nailed the poem’s meaning. Nice.
Love your interpretation Gav. It’s different to the one I associate with the poem but I think yours is true too. It’s a good reminder to avoid the ‘grass is greener’ perspective and appreciate where you are now.
Hey Gav.
This must be my favorite poem ever. That’s why I’m having a hard time with the interpretation you gave here. The Paintings are wonderful, Really!
I just think that Robert Frost meant that he chose a road- The one less traveled by- even though he wanted to take both.. your strip indicates that it doesn’t matter which road you take you’ll end up the same- but I beg to differ..
Non the less your interpretation is interesting and you draw beautifully!! Keep up the good work!!
You do not end up the same. The two persons depicted in this comic have radically different lives, except for the fact that they are both satisfied and happy. Who says that happiness only lies at the end of the less traveled road? Robert Frost just mused on the many crossroads we encounter during life and where our choices lead us.
I really like your take on this classic poem. I also don’t think there is a wrong path (mostly – life of crime?), and at times we all second guess choices that we made along the way.
There are things I regret not doing as a younger man. Things that seem impossible now, but I love my life and wouldn’t really change how things turned out. Unless I could have won the lottery or something! 😀
This is great stuff. I love the interpretation and in truth we wonder if we did take the “less travelled road”
I often think about how the small decisions make a difference.
My friends were attacked by a couple of thugs for no reason and that day I just decided that I didn’t want to hang out with them. A friend of mine was offered a ride home by a cereal killer… thank god she said no.
Such little things, so life changing.
And not just great things like that.. today I chose to shower and shave and i feel better for it.. funny how that works isn’t it? Infinite branches from infinite branches..
Love ur work!!Jus awesome!!
Namaste from Mumbai,India!
I love your take on it — especially your willingness to portray both choices as essentially equal while being different. “As for that, the passing there had worn them really about the same . . . ”
I see the man in your final image as serene rather than distressed by the fact that his choice was one that he could not go back and unmake/remake. He knows his life has been good, even though it could not be all things. And I love that.
That’s how most of those decisions really are, after all. We should not torment ourselves with the idea that we “might have missed a magnificent chance” by taking the road we took. There are magnificent chances on every road.
I set this poem to music when I was in college. I love your approach to it.
Reminds me of the movie “Mr. Nobody”.
I for one believe that we can not really make a decision, that every step we take is predetermined by our past and that we can only experience our lives like a good book that we read for the first time.
This thought doesn’t bother me, though.
Also, I appreciate your work.
Thanks!
There’s a jerky interpretation of the poem that gives it an extra layer. Notice that in the descriptions of the two roads, they aren’t different at all: “Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same.”
At the poem’s end, he declares that he will “tell all this with a sigh,” ages and ages hence, though the paths were virtually identical.
He’s describing deliberate self-mythologizing more than independence. The poem is about claiming the value of independence and trailblazing, rather than the actual value of independence and trailblazing. To be charitable, you could call it the deliberate creation of a synecdoche for his life; to be less so, you could call it the deliberate creation of an exaggerated fable to make himself sound more important and brave than he was.
Not the most winning interpretation, but it fits.
Are you a psychology major?
Awesome. Awesome, because now, there is a period in my life when I need to choose the right road. Hope I do it. Waiting for this print in the store.
I have read that poem several times in my life. Now I’m at the age of the guy at the end. I appreciate the insight that whichever path you take, you are still you. You can’t get away from you. If you don’t like what happens to you as the result of your choices or random happenings, the only possible way to take another path is to change yourself. Sometimes we don’t see ourselves as we are and don’t know just how many choices we actually have.
Awesome quote I really enjoy you work..I was just wondering about my decisions recently and this kind of makes me feel a whole lot better. thanks Keep it up..
I loved your interpretation, so many times I have heard this interpreted as one road is better then the other and never agreed.
I look forward to buying the print.
Print is available:
http://media.society6.com/zenpencils/60-ROBERT-FROST_Print
Loving reading all your stories!
Thank you, sir. Another of your fine pieces got to me, in particular because he was happy after each decision. I had the chance to visit Robert Frost’s home after choosing to take back roads instead of the interstate going home (MN) from a tech writing assignment in FL. I hope you don’t think me vain, but as a thank you, here’s a link to a (completely unrelated) humorous poem I wrote. I think you will enjoy it. http://writing-rag.com/1352/fish-poem/
and Thank You.
Thanks Rogers!
“Once you make an important decision, say to backpack around the world instead of going to college, you meet people, things happen to you, you fall in love, opportunities arise and your life kind of snowballs into decision after decision until you’re dead.”
I’m 24 and this sums up how I feel more and more often these days. However, there’s a few other famous lines I like to keep in mind:
“yes there are two paths you can go by,
but in the long run –
there’s still time to change the road you’re on”
Which to me has always meant that we tend to stay on the same path, snowballing from decision to decision, as you put it, largely because we PERCEIVE that we’re stuck. Take you’re college vs travel example – there is nothing whatsoever to stop the dissatisfied college student from packing in a degree and travelling, except inner resistancen that says, ‘Oh but you have so much debt, oh you’ll never get a job, etc.’
I’ve also always felt Frost’s poem to have something of a non-comformist streak to it – I mean he takes the road less travelled purely because it’s less travelled. That is the deciding criteria. In other words, he doesn’t won’t to live out the same stale existence as everybody else, and he has a better chance of avoiding that if he veers away from the well-trodden path.
The essence of the poem I think is summed up quite well in ‘Into the Wild’ when Chris returns to the city and looks at some sharply dressed fellow laughing in a bar, and sees his own face winking back at him.
I must admit I am not a bug fan of inspirational quotes and stories in general. But this one strangely touched me.
Each and every day for a few years now, I can not help but imagine how each mindless and insignificant decision I take might affect my life or the life of others in the longterm. I keep imagining “what if” alternate realities and sometimes I wonder if a simple piece of knowledge which I accidentally acquired could come in handy in the future, when I least expect it.
Being a scientist I am far from a fatalist. Quite the contrary. But seeing how much effect “random” events affecting me and my environment had in my life is kind of intriguing.
big*
Now, I’ve read somewhere that Frost is being sarcastic here and by saying “the road not taken” he meant to mock the popular “the road less travelled” concept. Is this true? I am as knowledgeable in poetry as I am in nuclear physics…
Of course we can claim the more conventional interpretation as valid but that bothers me.
Hi there! I’m from Argentina and I got to your website one day and I loved it from the very first moment. I’m currently studying graphic design and I admire your work. You take these beautiful and wise words from great people all over the world and transform them into colorful messages.
I never had the courage to send you a message myself but this work in particular “hits the spot”. I’m 24 and I’m scared of the future. I doubt my work can be any good but I still try anyway. And everytime I feel a little bit down I go to your site and find comfort in the words and colors and forms and experiences…
Anyway, guess what I’m trying to say is thank you for your work, it really gives me hope to become a great designer and believe in what I choose to be.
Hugs! 🙂
You’re welcome Silvina, thanks for your comment and good luck with your design career!
Thank you so much for your answer Gav! 😀 I will make you proud!!
The nature of a life changing decision is you will never know if it was the right one. Only you can decide that.
Hi Gav. I just found your site when i was browsing for that sagan comic you made. Well, this poem is one of my favourite. And how i interpret it, is kinda same with your comic. I interpret it as a choice whether we take the safe road (crowded one) or less traveled one, with chances to meet new people and new events. But yeah, you’ll never know how your life might turn out once you walk out of the road. I really appreciate your work 🙂 Keep on!
Awesome Comic, but can you also make a depressing version, where both roads lead down to his destruction ? I’m sure your more angst ridden fans will love it!!
I’m currently travelling and working abroad (for a year), so this really spoke to me. Thank you!
Saved to harddrive, to remind me what I’m doing it for. Experiences.
Gav, you made me laugh. lol.
True, I often think what would have happened if I have gotten that BIG JOB in PRADA when it first opened in South East Asia in the late 90’s rather than to uni. in Australia?
Maybe all these goes to show you have old soul, my friend?
Gav, this one give me encouragement for choose my own path. thanks!!
I love the comic. I saw it posted on a different website today, and it was incredible because that is exactly the way I’ve always interpreted the poem but I rarely find anyone who views it this way (or can express it so clearly). And the beauty of poetry is that everyone can interpret it differently, which is what makes the comments so interesting to read. Also, the poem is beautiful, and such an excellent choice to illustrate. I have to read the previous 60 now.
Great cartoon! Keep up the good work. Cheers!
i also agree in the interpretation you gave the poem and it is amazing, but i somehow feel that you are trying to convince yourself that you made the “right” choice, but thats what i think the poem its all about, there are no right or wrong paths, the important thing is that you take your decision on your own and not because of the pressure of the environment. your whole life depends on choices.
Brilliant cartoon! Congrats.
there is one big thing that jumped at me…that either way he had a job and someone to love… I think so many times the reason we hesitate in choosing the road is we are afraid we will miss out on love…or miss out on a career….
What you shared reminds me of when I was in college…and I was working hard to cover all my bases…hoping to catch my big break…then I got a fortune cookie that said “you can’t ride the train in all directions” I remember taping that to my computer. Very nice work. Thanks man. J.
I just stumbled across you page. I have never interpreted this poem this way. I always felt that it takes great courage to take the road less traveled and only when you do that does true success ensue rather than taking the well beaten path.
But a great big thanks in adding this perspective. You are doing a great job at figuring out the shit ……… one comic at a time 😀 Brilliant job
Hi Gav, you’re website is amazing and this comic is one of my favourite.
I’m from Italy, I’ve translated it for all the italians who cannot understand English, you can find it here:
http://www.blogzero.it/2012/08/18/la-strada-non-presa-robert-frost/
I hope this is ok for you… if possibile I would like to translate other comics, can I?
Thanks and cheers from Italy!
Thanks Samuele – looks great! Sure, I would love some help translating to Italian – get in touch with me via email gavin@zenpencils.com
Wow, I can see my life in this one. Really interesting how you interpretate it as it is easy to assume that the “road less travel” is the better one.
I moved from Hong Kong to California (choice made by parents as I was only a little kid then), from California back to HK after University, from HK to living in Europe after marriage.
Sometimes I wonder if I would be better off if I just stayed in one place and focus on my career instead of traveling and living in 3 different continents, sorta like how you wonder if it would be a better decision to travel to Europe with your friend.
But I wouldn’t have met the most amazing wife that I am together with now if I didn’t move and you wouldn’t have draw a comic every week for 5 years as a professional which led to the creation of this amazing blog.
So I am happy with all the good and the bad decisions that I made in the past and I look forward to making the best choice out of what I have today to create my future.
Thanks Gav!
Brian
Man Gav, your comics give me chills just about every time. You are really too good at illustrating these quotes.
Is this one available in prints by now?
Yes
I couldn’t see any difference.
Love your interpretation…
This is such a beautiful renidition of my favorite poem. Thank you. I love your interpretation of it and connect to it so much, with every crossroads I see in my life!
“So the decision to stay was the right one … I think.”
I like thinking about it like this: The decision to stay wasn’t wrong. The decision to leave wouldn’t be wrong either. They’re both right. Indecision is to be wrong.
amazing (take a bow)
Gav, you are an incredible, insightful and wise person. I appreciate your interpretation!
In high school, I learned another interpretation (which is no more valid than yours, but one I wanted to share anyway). Judging from Frost’s other poems, he might be exploring the choice of suicide, and the difficult decision to keep on living despite the challenges of life.
Just thought I’d throw that out there!
I believe you have a great interpretation of this all too often misinterpreted poem.
Here is a link of a proper interpretation that I think echoes what you have done.
http://suite101.com/article/robert-frosts-tricky-poem-a8712
Frost asks us to look back to the past. In life every one has to choose from the available options. We are at cross roads. We cannot have all options. We have to choose the less trodden path and never repent . Have the courage to DECIDE at cross roads…
In my almost four years of college level English courses, I’ve heard several interpretations of this poem, but the one that comes up the most is essentially that Frost is saying neither path was really any better or more interesting, but that people have a tendency to look back on their lives and attribute great meaning to meaningless things. When he says “I shall be telling this with a sigh…” he’s telling a self-deprecating joke about how he knows he’s going to wind up being another old person with a lot of supposedly meaningful, but ultimately pointless, stories to tell.
I learned this poem for school, along with “Stopping by woods on a snowy evening”. Your art captures the exact meaning of this poem. That one simple decision can change you entire life. Great job.
To me this poem is about indecision. Not only being indecisive, but being decisive enough to take a path.
He starts the poem with an apology, about how he couldn’t be more than one person, and how he couldnt take both roads, and how eventually, because each decision leads to a different set of decisions, he couldn’t go back (or in other words, sorry he couldnt travel it ALL).
But he took a path. he didn’t turn back because what about the path in front of him? He decided, with many many decisions stacked up on each other, not to retrace his steps back, but to travel to new ground he’s never seen before. Grounds he came upon trodding down the pathways of his decisions.
He acknowledges, to me, that he wanted to travel the ways he didn’t get to travel when faced with decisions, and is saddened by it, and shows he’s somewhat regretful of it with his apology. But he made those decisions. And he came to where he is. He acknowledges that even though he’ll never know the other path, he knows this path now. Because he dared to venture, rather than retracing back over and over again and being counterproductive.
I hope that this long comment didn’t bore or confuse you, I’m not very good with providing concise ideas when i have so many things to think/talk about haha.
I really liked your comment but Im afraid to tell you thats not the correct interpretation. You get close for moments but, like most people, you dont get the real meaning. If you want to know what the truth about this poem is read this entry, the one written by Garret P.
http://www.truthcontest.com/insights/team-insights/
Thats the only correct answer. And yes, im being objective. I you dont belive me read the rest of the website and you will realize im right:
Oh wow this really, really, REALLY hit home. Thank you for making it…
😀
I’m just happy Mr. Responsible up there seems just as happy with his life as Mr. Reckless.
Funny. This poem–and your explanation–fits my life to a T. All the things I could’ve done…but then I’d have missed what I have now.
It ain’t perfect, but I can’t really say it sucks, either.
“Let me just qualify everything I’ve ever written on this site by saying I’m 29, I don’t really know anything about life and I’m just trying to figure this shit out … one comic at a time. I’m NOT trying to be a self-help guru – these quotes are for my own benefit as much as yours.”
.. You go, man.
A road diverged in a wood and I …
… dug a tunnel and traveled beneath them.
yes dude,….this one’s the best poem i have ever seen….i don’t know why inherently,..i deeply involve in the scene even reading it for hundred times…..may be this is the essence a poem has to have. or may be ,..as it says…i might have chosen a road ,…which i hope would be the best suited for me
I really enjoyed your comic on Robert Frost’s poem. I am taking English in college and we are reading poetry. Your comic helped me understand the poem.
This poem said to me that both road were the right road, there are no right or wrong roads as he would have enjoyed his journey just as much on either, it tells me to live the moment and not look back or forward but instead accept and enjoy – we all make our own destiny by the choices we make at any one moment in time, but even a wrong decision at that moment in time was exactly the right decision to make.
This has been probably my all-time favorite poem. Currently, as I am going to receive my bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering in may, this quote has been on my mind. I am trying to decide upon going to Canada to try to work for a heli-ski company or to take a normal entry-level engineering job. It’s hard to know which path will make all the difference. Thanks Gavin, for all of the inspiration.
This is a poem about stasis. It’s about being paralyzed by decisions, rather than about nonconformity or choice. The man is cowardly and ultimately grows old in the wood, unable to choose a path for fear of choosing the wrong one. That is why it is called The Road Not Taken rather than The Road Less Travelled. Taking any road at all is what makes the difference to the narrator, not the fact that it is less travelled- they are worn about the same.
I remember reading this poem in class in high school. Our teacher gave a counterculture interpretation of it. He did his best to inspire us to protest injustice and fight for our beliefs. I understood what he was doing but I felt compelled to argue that just because a road is less traveled does not make it the better choice.
My example? I said, “Just because everyone wears clothes doesn’t mean that not wearing clothes is a good idea!”
First thing to pop into my head. I don’t know why. 🙂
This is unbelievable!
I gave a public speech last year about this time about how I came to North America on a student visa from Africa ( A real struggle it was) and I started my speech with this poem and ended with the last line from it …
Its the same story except I am still in the middle of it … thank you so much for doing this one this way and for all of this fantastic blog … whenever I have a bad day, whenever I am so homesick and starting to question my life and my goal, I come back to look at this …
Not only I find it comforting… but it reminds me that its not bad to aim for the stars even when everyone expects you to keep your eyes on the ground .. thank you so much.
Joseph Campbell connects here: in old age we look back and see our life as a story whose story arc was inevitable. He says it better!
I am extremely impressed with the view point. Thanks for sharing such useful information in your blog. A great content for getting the proper information in connection with subject.
ROBERT FROST: The road not taken
Agree with lots of comments here but does anyone think that Frost implies that the road less travelled is often the more difficult one. The easy route generally reaps fewer rewards but more disciplined people tend to have an easier life in the long run. Has anyone read the psychology self help book for people with depression ‘The Road Less Travelled’? This promotes self discipline as a tool for securing a happier disposition. In the basest of terms, say you choose to go out the night before work and get really drunk. The next day you feel like crap, you’re tired, you can’t perform properly and you regret your actions the night
before. Even worse you might ‘throw a sickie’ and spend all day feeling bad about letting down your boss, colleagues etc. Worst scenario, you could lose your job. However, if we do the harder thing and say ‘no’ to the party or even harder still, turn up, have one or two drinks and go home early to bed, we get up the next day bright eyed and bushy tailed with no regrets about the night before. And, there will always be other parties on more appropriate evenings when it wouldn’t matter what time it was or how drunk we got. I expect people will think what a goody goody, life’s too short, grab it with both hands but Im speaking from experience, Ive took the easy route all my life and as my old dad says (who would not have a clue about analysing poetry) ‘Life has a funny habit of creeping up on you and biting you on the arse! Be careful what you choose to do, things you do now will affect you in the future. I have learnt this lesson the hard way but even now don’t always do the difficult thing. I’ts so much easier to opt for the road more commonly travelled, the road which feels safe and gives us more or less instant gratification, the less travelled road is unfamiliar territory to us, so is less comfortable and more challenging.
Yours is a really good comment but your still missing the target. If you really want to know the truth about this poem, go to this link and look for the text written by Garret P.
http://www.truthcontest.com/insights/team-insights/
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Wow! I didn’t know it was a poem. I knew the text from a great song sang by Lyriel – a German folk group. Suggestively as it may seem, the music is called The road not taken. You guys should totally check it out. The song is beautiful and perfectly captures this poem’s soul.
Stumbled upon this blog from FB. Really nice to see how you parallel the possibility and the reality. Well, as someone, sometime had said “whatever happens, happens for the best”. I am sure you feel the same. I think. 🙂
Keep up the good work. Moving on to your other articles.
I interpret as this: any road you take it leads you to the same end! How would you know if the choice or decision you made was right or wrong unless you don’t tread that road. I feel we ought to make a choice and live it through, without regrets. Else you will always wonder “What if I had only taken the other road instead”.
Amazing comic, exactly what I needed to read. To me it’s not necessarily about the ‘physical’ path that you take but your perception of it. You might be strolling down the most beautiful walkway in the world but if your mind is in turmoil it will mean nothing to you.
One wanders to the left, other to the right ….
Both are equally at error….
But are seduced by different delusions!!
But are seduced by different delusions!!
In your case, I believe there were at least two such junctions. One when your friend asked you to go to Europe with him and the other when you met the newspaper editor. The first one is pretty obvious. But the second one is not. you could have decided to take the college course which would make you the most money and worked hard at it, ignoring other hobbies, but you decided to ask him to publish your comics.
I guess Frost was not totally right. There is no one junction in your life with two paths. life’s a fractal, with such important junctions at every step and every decision we make. May be we kid ourselves in saying that something is wrong or right with our life because of some choice we made ages ago.
I love your comics, keep them coming for many many more years. Best of wishes
You’re ONLY 29.
There will be time to take both roads.
After a life of doing what everyone said was the “only” road, I’m stepping onto the other one.
There is time – so give yourself it. Enjoy the journey.
i really like this post!!!
tumbs up!
Well done! I love this one!
I love this quote! There’s no right or wrong path. Life is made with a number of decisions and opportunities which can take you to many different places. 🙂
Hi Gavin! Congrats for your job! It’s pretty amazing! I liked very much of this one in particular. It reminded me about one quotation that I like: “Sometimes the wrong choices led us to the right places!”.
I think the best thing about the way you drew this comic is that no matter which life is taken, he becomes a happy old man in the end. The choice of which road matters less than forging ahead.
I’ll be honest, I never actually could completely grasp this poem, but it always kinda’ appealed me, but this comic added a new dimension. Loved reading it.
Hi Zenpencils guy, I like your stuff.
I found a copy of this comic posted at 9gag; thought you might want to know and complain.
link for reference:
http://9gag.com/gag/aNeGjL3
Pleaaaaaseeeeeeee! Do Ice and Fire. That’s my favourite poem by him.
I’ll enjoy that a lot.
And I’ll be very thankfull.
Just inform me if you do it, however, I’ll be on the track.
@manuelbaptista9
Aigoo, it’s so beautiful poem with an amazing ilustration, love it. Indah sekali! ^^
Love your interpretation. You’ve helped give a face to one of my favourite poems. It is funny how in life one thing leads to another and you’ll never know if it would have made life better or worse. Will definitely introduce it to my students too. Thanks!
ive heard these quotes many times before, but your illustrations make them so much easier to understand!! i just wanted to thank you for all that you are doing.i am finding so much inspiration and well.. “ahh haa” moments from your website. life is full of unexpected twists and turns but the beautiful thing is the choice. your choices have led you to create this website. my choices brought me here. this has reminded me that its okay to reflect, but not to regret… and that has made all the difference.
I think what he means by “the one less traveled by” is the one of your own choosing. The one that you solely choose and not be affected by any factors at own. Because it’s what you want, so you choose to go on that road. So if we look at it this way, going to college or backpacking are equally regarded as “the one less traveled by” provided that you are the one who chose it, not others.
To me, “the one less traveled by” has always means the path where people go without thinking about their own wants. The path where we just go because we see others people are going too.
As long as you have no regrets, you have always avoided the path less traveled. Such a beautiful and complex world this is, and we only have one shot at it. Follow your heart and never look back!
Beautifully drawn.
One of my recent favourites is A Screenwriter’s advice.
When would that be available on print. I’d love to make a purchase. 😀
I think many people misinterpret this as being deeper than it is.
Basically he says that there were two roads and that they were about equally worn with similar leaf covering (i.e., neither was the “one less traveled by”). So he took one. However, sometime in the future, he knows he’s going to lie about it and say that he took the one that was less traveled by and he will attribute his current status to that decision.
So basically he made an arbitrary decision, but later in life will lie to others (and perhaps himself) about the importance of that decision. I think it’s a comment on how people look back at what were (at the time) arbitrary decisions and place great import on them because we’re far enough along at that point that we can’t fathom any alternative state of being. For example, “I’ve I’d never done/said/met X then Y would never have happened.”
I actually think your interpretation in the comic (if not in the text below it) is one imagined scenario with some decision (though you chose what I think many would not consider to be an arbitrary one) that is a least closer to the meaning than I’ve typically seen people do.
I appreciate the journey you’ve been on Gavin, but sometimes I feel these comics discourage or belittle those that take the more “traditional” path (like the one on the right).
I am glad that each path was shown to be equally viable and produce similar happiness.
I love the way you have played around with the possibilities of the quote. In my case, I want to break away from what I am doing and do something new. Your interpretation and the power of the quote inspires me to take that risk. Thanks!
Hi. I am from Bombay, India & a big fan of your work. It’s really amazing how you give life to all these inspirational Quotes and take them to a whole new level. The way you mix wisdom with creativity is amazing. Out of all your work, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is the 1st one I read and relate to the most. I would love to get this on poster or a canvas so that I can hang it in my room. I can’t seem to find the poster or canvas for this on your store. I’d appreciate if you could help me out. Thanks a ton and keep up the amazing work. You are inspiring millions.
Bravo!!!
Gavin, just to let you know, I’m 54 and know just as much about life as you do.
Thanks for the great comics!
I Just saying thank you won’t sufficiently be, for the heavenly clarity in your written work.
Gavin, just to let you know, I’m 54 and know just as much about life as you do.
Thanks for the great comics!
I LOVE your take on this. It’s so often used as a “take the one less taken!!” inspiration, when what he’s really saying is “you’ll have to pick one either way” – reportedly, the poem was written in response to a friend of Frost’s who was legendarily indecisive.
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Great work. Sometimes in our life we should stop wasting time regretting about what we did not do in the past and keep moving forward with our choice. That’s what I get from this work.
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That last bit is what blew me away. This poem is my favourite but seeing how the middle portion of our lives – not the start or the end – but the middle is what makes all the difference. Thankyou.
After many months, I came back to this site again. I’ve been busy and almost forgot about this. There are so many new posts. This comic gave me a light in my circumstance right now. I do really like your interpretation. I am struggling with the road I’m taking after graduation but this gives me a new perspective. A hope. Thanks Gavin keep up what you are doing. It inspires people. I wish the best in the path you have taken. God Bless always.
This is one of my most favourite poem. My interpretation of it pivots on the “road less travelled” part more than the “two roads diverged” part. It’s about how someone was at the crossroads and chose the path that may not be popular or advised but they did it anyway. Kinda like how you had the choice to go on with working for someone in the graphics design field but you took the “road less travelled” and sold your home, and decided to strike it out in the direction of your dreams. You gave up security and a stable income. That’s not something that many people would do ie it’s the “road less travelled”. And lo and behold, it has made all the difference. 🙂
I think someone here had also mentioned that the poem’s about how, when you’ve realised the truth, you can no longer follow the illusion that everybody else follows anymore. That’s like the career/life choices too in that, like your Howard Thurman cartoon 83, you get to the point where you must strike out from what the family, culture and society says you should do and ask your inner voice what the right path is for yourself. Most people are too scared to listen to that inner voice. It’s the “road less travelled”, it’s the unknown, just like it’s the unknown when you follow something that makes you come alive that is not conventionally acceptable. The only thing you know is that, like the traveller in the poem, it IS the unknown and you have to surrender to the fact that that path beckons you more than the other well trodden one. That, itself, is the awakening to the truth of existence. We exist to live our truth. Not to follow someone else’s illusory man-made standards of what is “right”. Who’s to say that being a teacher is less than a surgeon? Or an artist less than a computer programmer? It’s comparing the gifts of a fish against that of a monkey’s yet society still does it, but we need both the fish and the monkey to make the planet whole.
In the end, saying it with a sigh about the fact that that less travelled path that you have chosen has made all the difference meant to me that there had been a lot of struggles with the journey because you are the pioneer of this path. Whether it was a struggle because you have not been conditioned to question the status quo or it was a risky undertaking or you had no role models to be guided by, it was still an uphill battle, it still required great courage – hence, the sigh. And I interpreted the “made all the difference” as the acknowledgement of the transformation that occurred from having undergone such a journey. The person has succeeded. They’ve found this reservoir of courage within themselves and have separated themselves from others by this difference. They can no longer go back to the others because they are no longer the same as the others. And they can no longer go back to being that traveller who stood at the crossroads because they are no longer the same. They have been forever changed. That’s like how we end up losing the friends we have to make room for new friends when we strike out in the direction of our dreams. Our focus and energy has changed and our outside world changes to reflect this internal shift. We can’t go back to that past us anymore.
I am awed to see this online journal. I truly do have trust in the vast majority of the standards you’ve showed up for the post.
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I have been your follower always…since first of your days…I have also seen your readers finding strength and hope, for me it was today. I am going through this phase where sometimes self doubt could be catastrophic to the extent of wondering why one took that step. Whether it was worth it. Thank you for being the answer I was looking for. Bless you.
Very nicely illustrated
Well, we visit your site and we love what you write down here… We will come again!!
This is a brilliant interpretation!! I think it captures perfectly the ambiguity of our choices, and I particularly love how the graphics parallel the two paths in the woods. The somewhat tragic ending, shared by all mortals, is simply an added bonus–“we live as we dream:”–and make life choices–“alone.”
–That quote is from Gang of Four, I forgot to attribute!
Hey! I am 42 and still alive! The two paths criss- cross each other all the time in my reality…the woods here are really wild 🙂
What a fantastic, non judgmental interpretation of a personal fave! Thanks so much. Personally, I like to believe the poem is less about the path taken or not taken and more about what one decides to do with either. As Star Wars puts it- your focus determines your reality!
Kudos on your inspiring, interesting and entertaining site. Love what I have seen so far!
I don’t really know about what I thought the poem was. I had it in the classical interpretation as you said. I was confused for a bit about the way it was presented. I kept expecting something better in one path or the other but found it full of incomparable things.
I’m playing a game right now, a relatively old game, where your choices matter and affect the rest of the game and even others in the series.
The difference here is that there is one clear ‘right’ path. I think that’s where the authors of the story failed. It should’ve been more like this, where paths are equally rewarding, just different.
Holy hell Gavin, you’re just a year older than me! You’ve accomplished so much in your life. Your corporate experience, your comic experience, starting and becoming wildly successful at such an early age. With a family and child.
You really are living the dream.
You’re so talent !!!
Hey,
yes, i also feel life is made of choices – that’s all.
choices / decisions are just that nothing more. Everything can’t be put in boxes of wrong and right.
Some travel one path …. others another one ! That is all 🙂
And we make our life.
I’m not big into poetry or art but I loved this strip. It kind of depicted some of my own thoughts on life, how you’ll never really be sure if any decision you made was the “right” one but it doesn’t really matter because you only have one life and have to make the best of it either way. I actually picked this poem to recite in front of a speech class in 6th grade and only had a vague understanding of it (because at 12, my life experience was exactly none).
“Though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same”. I may be wrong about this line but I interpret it to mean that it’s not that important how many people have gone down the road you decide to go down on. The only thing that matters is that YOU yourself have not travelled this road yet and so every potential road is the road less travelled. Even if many others have done the same they all take away something different from the experience and eventually will have to make more decisions that take them down a unique path from everyone else.
Your music is amazing. You have some very talented artists. I wish you the best of success.
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All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.
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There is nothing wrong with today’s teenager that twenty years won’t cure.
The selfish man looks into the world as he looks into his mirror: only to see himself. ~James Lendall Basford (1845–1915), Sparks from the Philosopher’s Stone, 1882
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I was taught that your interpretation of the poem is correct, but not complete. Compare the end “the road less traveled by…” And the beginning “two paths, equally worn.” No path can be less traveled if both are equally worn. The end of the poem talks about how Frost, in his age, will justify and rewrite history, so to speak, to rationalize his life choices and tell about how he made the right one.
With this interpretation, the poem isn’t nominally about equal paths and choices, but about how people will lie to themselves to justify the path they’ve chosen.
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Thank you Gavin for your “ROBERT FROST: The road not taken” comic post
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Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.
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I’ve always loved this poem and really enjoyed your take on it. Was this ever available as a poster? I couldn’t see it in the store.
I am awed to see this online journal. I truly do have trust in the vast majority of the standards you’ve showed up for the post.
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This is one the best creative infographics I have seen.
Appreciate your art.. But I think you’ve missed the point of the poem. Robert Frost meant that the road less traveled is difficult yet gives an enriching experiences and make a man more intellectual. And I didn’t find any difference between the two roads you described. In the graphics, I found that the man is living happily regardless of what road he chooses. Just think about that if you’ve not chosen your passion and haven’t started this website what you would be doing? You may get your answer the two roads, one that is less traveled and the other like a super highway where most of people are traveling.
I love the graphic and am wondering eagerly if you’re getting it into print?
I do find it both strange and enthralling that your comic does not depict what the author describes in the poems ending. So I have to agree with Nakul on this. But I like your ending way better. Eventhough it’s literally NOT what the author says, after seeing your graphic, that’s how I always interpret it and what it mean for me.
Comments are closed.