D is for Diverge

Robert Frost is a poet who influenced my generation, and certainly many generations.  He was the poet who introduced me to poetry, when he recited a poem at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy.  I was in fourth grade, a voracious reader, but not a reader of poetry.

Grandma Peck had a book case of very old books on all topics.  She had been a pharmacist, in 1916; she was the only female in a class of 100 men.  Her books were heavy, and with very dry content in my nine-year old opinion.  But, she pulled out some well worn books of poetry:  Kipling, Wordsworth, Dickinson, and of course, Frost.  It was as if she had lighted a fire under me, and I devoured the poetry.

Unfortunately, time and short-circuits have prevented my brain from pulling the words out of my brain on command.  I can only remember bits, but they are flavorful bits. Thankfully, the computer can do the recalling for me, most of the time.

Frost wrote about walking in the woods on a fall day:

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;        5  

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,        10  

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.        15

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.        20  

Whatever my age, and no matter how the next few years evolve, I will continue to thank Mr. Frost for the value of paths that “…diverge in a yellow wood…” and taking a path less traveled by.  It has made all the difference.
 Please check out the blogspot below; Arlee Bird and his crazy crew are hosting this A-Z blog, and you will want to see other entries.  They are awesome!
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