“The most satisfying part of Orr’s fresh appraisal of “The Road Not Taken” is the reappraisal it can inspire in longtime Frost readers whose readings have frozen solid. “Orr is fascinated by why so many have read this poem so positively for so long, and what this fact reveals about the American soul.” “ achievement in this shrewd and patient book lies in connecting Frost’s deceptively folksy manner with the very things that make him matter.” “David Orr has written the best popular explanation to date of the most popular poem in American history.”

“This entertaining book will appeal to poetry and American literature lovers, as well as to readers interested in the interweaving of art and culture.”

An illuminating voyage into the heart of Frost’s poem and the American spirit.” “Orr presents a fresh, perceptive reading of the verse places it in the context of Frost’s life, other works, and public persona and considers the meaning of choice in American culture. “Orr blends theory, biography, psychology, science, and a healthy dose of pop culture into a frothy mix so fun, readers may forget they’re learning something.” Orr offers a lively look at the poem’s cultural influence, its artistic complexity, and its historical journey from the margins of the First World War all the way to its canonical place today as a true masterpiece of American literature. Widely admired as the poetry columnist for The New York Times Book Review, Orr is the perfect guide for lay readers and experts alike. The crossroads between the poet and the man is where Frost leaves his poems for us to discover, turning what seems like a fork in the road into a site of limitless potential.” - The Boston GlobeĪ cultural “biography” of Robert Frost’s beloved poem, arguably the most popular piece of literature written by an Americanĭavid Orr’s The Road Not Taken dives directly into the controversy, illuminating the poem’s enduring greatness while revealing its mystifying contradictions. “The most satisfying part of Orr’s fresh appraisal of ‘The Road Not Taken’ is the reappraisal it can inspire in longtime Frost readers whose readings have frozen solid. Published for the poem’s centennial-along with a new Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition of Frost’s poems, edited and introduced by Orr himself- The Road Not Taken is a treasure for all readers, a triumph of artistic exploration and cultural investigation that sings with its own unforgettably poetic voice. And in this, “The Road Not Taken” is distinctively American, for the United States is the country of choice in all its ambiguous splendor. The poem gives us a portrait of choice without making a decision itself. What Orr artfully reveals is that the poem speaks to both of these impulses, and all the possibilities that lie between them. Is it a paean to triumphant self-assertion, where an individual boldly chooses to live outside conformity? Or a biting commentary on human self-deception, where a person chooses between identical roads and yet later romanticizes the decision as life altering? And everyone remembers the traveler taking “the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.” But for a century readers and critics have fought bitterly over what the poem really says. “The Road Not Taken” seems straightforward: a nameless traveler is faced with a choice: two paths forward, with only one to walk. Widely admired as the poetry columnist for the New York Times Book Review, Orr is the perfect guide for lay readers and experts alike. And yet in spite of this devotion, almost everyone gets the poem hopelessly wrong.ĭavid Orr’s The Road Not Taken dives directly into the controversy, illuminating the poem’s enduring greatness while revealing its mystifying contradictions. Yet poetry it is, and Frost’s immortal lines remain unbelievably popular. ” One hundred years after its first publication in August 1915, Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” is so ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget that it is, in fact, a poem. A cultural “biography” of Robert Frost’s beloved poem, arguably the most popular piece of American literature

The road not taken frost