Your introduction to the famous Robert Frost poem “The Road Not Taken” might have been when your grade-school teacher told you that the road in question was the one fewer people traveled. The road of independence. The better road. Go the wilder route, the poem says. Bushwhack to unseen beauty! Discover what others haven’t. You may have held on to that interpretation, but the road not taken, if you read carefully, is clearly not the same road as the “one less traveled.” The road not taken is simply the other road—the one that “bent in the undergrowth” of the yellow wood. The roads aren’t even that different, as described in these overlooked lines: “Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same, / And both that morning equally This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Four Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 49 Karin Mamma Andersson Inside the moody, mysterious world of Sweden’s preeminent painter. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Jenny Odell The acclaimed author in search of lost time. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Amalie Smith The Danish arts writer finding clarity between the lines. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Ryan Heffington Meet the man bringing choreography, community and queer joy to the desert. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Nell Wulfhart Advice from a decision coach. Arts & Culture Fashion Issue 49 A World of Difference A fun lesson in cultural faux pas.
Arts & Culture Issue 49 Karin Mamma Andersson Inside the moody, mysterious world of Sweden’s preeminent painter.
Arts & Culture Issue 49 Ryan Heffington Meet the man bringing choreography, community and queer joy to the desert.
