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.
By Robert Frost
Robert Frost's poem could be the tale of every artists, the road less traveled. It is an uncommon choice to be an artist, but often it choses us and not vice versa. Many of you here the inner call, urging you on to paint to draw to create...you cannot drown it out of your head, it is there strong, persistent and at times demanding. When I taught young children there were some who could not help but draw. The classroom teachers would often punish them for drawing on their math or writing papers. I tried to explain to the teachers these children cannot help it, they must draw, it is an inner call. And those are the children who will perfect their skills by daily drawing and observation even without a teachers help. They will draw relentlessly with pencil in hand on any scrap of paper, anywhere they can, day after day, year after year. They are creators and they cannot help but to create. It the less worn grassy path they follow, and take the path less traveled because it is their path and they must take it, and we need for them to take it. For we need creators in this world or we would have bare walls, no music or dance, there would be no concerts, nor movies or plays. There would be no architects to design interesting buildings, nor interior decorators to make magic happen in our homes and businesses, and no illustrators for film and print....and no inventors to help us create new and better ways of doing things. We need people who are willing to take the road less traveled.
