Robert Frost – The Chaos Within

For a long time, I’ve been wanting to write about this poem. I’ve felt a certain closeness to this particular poem, ever since my teacher introduced me to it. It was love at sight, and though I wasn’t new to the experience, it kept haunting me. It seemed to probe me to do what I felt was right. (but it is tougher than I expected it to be)

What, in the world, is so special about this poem? I can hear you wondering.

Well, it has beautiful words.

No, really. Apart from conveying the greatest piece of advice, the words were beautiful; the wording was artistic and the story it portrayed was an absolute classic.

Go ahead and read it, if you haven’t already.

The Road Not Taken.

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.

-Robert Frost

I told you so!

Now a days, I often catch myself wishing that the world had ended in December 2012.

That reminds me of a poem of Robert Frost that I like, Fire and Ice. It was love at first sight. It was helpful that the first sight was during the time everyone in school was so feverishly worried about the world’s end.

The poem brought a smile on my lips, what a thought! Fire and ice, two destructive forces compared to two other similarly destructive forces, desire and hate. It seemed like a perfect combination. It was so obvious.

We don’t need another Tsunami or an earthquake to destroy us. Those are just external causes. We have stronger and more dangerous forces within us that have the power to vanquish us. And, we don’t realize it. We are only worried about Natural factors.

Sometimes it sounds so unlikely that desire or hate towards something could end up perilous, but reflection would reveal the truthfulness of those words.

We don’t need to worry about what Nature would do to us, rather, what should be a matter of our concern is what we could do to the only home we have. We could and would destroy ourselves, our loved ones and our generations by our self-centeredness. That is when the world really dies.

This poem changed my view on the world’s existence.

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

~Robert Frost