The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

I've often wonder about this poem and what it really means, because there are definitely roads that I will never go down again. As Mr. Frost points out, "Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back."

So having taken all these paths to reach this point (yes many of them less traveled), has it really made all the difference?

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
by Robert Frost

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.

Katie Couric at the Poetry & Creative Mind Benefit Video

Poets.org my favorite poetry website (I'm about to ware that link on my favorites out). Recently posted some interesting video of Katie Couric Backstage at the Poetry & The Creative Mind Benefit.

On April 1, 2008, the Academy of American Poets held its sixth annual benefit, Poetry & The Creative Mind, at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center. Some of America’s leading artists, scholars, and public figures participated in this extraordinary evening celebrating the role of contemporary poetry in American culture. Poetry & The Creative Mind kicks off National Poetry Month, established by the Academy in 1996and now the largest literary celebration in the world.

Poetry & Meryl Streep

Phillis Wheatley

photo by clairity

Phillis Wheatley, 1753-1784, poet, was the first African-American to publish poetry. Born into slavery, she was taken from her parents at an early age. She was raised Christian and offered an exceptional education by the family that owned her. She received he freedom on the death of her owner in 1778 and married. She had three children and none survived infancy. She died at age 31.

`TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew,
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.´

Phillis Wheatley @ Wikipedia - They have some great links there please check them out.

A Geo-Biography of Phillis Wheatley on Google Earth