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The literal or ironic interpretation? Or maybe a little of both? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(poem) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_N

by jmatt 16y ago

The literal or ironic interpretation? Or maybe a little of both? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(poem) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(poem) Personally I've always appreciated it in it's literal interpretation. Maybe this is why I could never truly appreciate poetry.

Scriptor 16y ago
It's the simplest and least convoluted interpretation. On that note: "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." --Albert Einstein
- chc 16y ago
  The "literal" interpretation is only the simplest and least convoluted if you ignore the entire rest of the poem. If you go by that interpretation, you have to explain what every other line in the poem is talking about. It's all about how the two roads were completely indistinguishable, and Frost is very explicit that neither was perceptibly more traveled than the other ("the passing there / Had worn them really about the same"). That's why "I took the road less traveled by" is something he'll say "ages and ages" in the future: At the moment, he can't tell any difference between the roads, but in the future he will have built up a mythology to support his arbitrary choice. I've never heard a good explanation for what the rest of the poem is talking about if his fuzzy memory at the end is meant to be a true recollection.
- jtheory 16y ago
  That Einstein quote is a great one. A few other in my list that are (more or less) relevant to hackers: There are two ways of constructing a software design; one way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. - C. A. R. Hoare Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all. - Douglas Adams "Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." - Lewis Carroll If you're going through hell, keep going. - Winston Churchill
pvg 16y ago
I think you want 'figurative' not 'ironic' there, Alanis.
- Kliment 16y ago
  No, in this case irony applies. Click through to the link, and have a look for yourself. Specifically, the ironic reading is that it has in fact made no difference at all which road he took.

by jmatt 16y ago

Scriptor 16y ago

It's the simplest and least convoluted interpretation. On that note: "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." --Albert Einstein

chc 16y ago
The "literal" interpretation is only the simplest and least convoluted if you ignore the entire rest of the poem. If you go by that interpretation, you have to explain what every other line in the poem is talking about. It's all about how the two roads were completely indistinguishable, and Frost is very explicit that neither was perceptibly more traveled than the other ("the passing there / Had worn them really about the same"). That's why "I took the road less traveled by" is something he'll say "ages and ages" in the future: At the moment, he can't tell any difference between the roads, but in the future he will have built up a mythology to support his arbitrary choice. I've never heard a good explanation for what the rest of the poem is talking about if his fuzzy memory at the end is meant to be a true recollection.
jtheory 16y ago
That Einstein quote is a great one. A few other in my list that are (more or less) relevant to hackers: There are two ways of constructing a software design; one way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. - C. A. R. Hoare Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all. - Douglas Adams "Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop." - Lewis Carroll If you're going through hell, keep going. - Winston Churchill

pvg 16y ago

I think you want 'figurative' not 'ironic' there, Alanis.

Kliment 16y ago
No, in this case irony applies. Click through to the link, and have a look for yourself. Specifically, the ironic reading is that it has in fact made no difference at all which road he took.