robert frost. sigh.

i had a college professor who wanted to school us the in the real robert frost. during our study of frost, he asked how we felt about the quintessential frost lines "i took the [road] less traveled by...& that has made all the difference." most of us felt it conjured positive emotion based on a decision the speaker was content with. but professor said, in context, it seems the speaker's indicating a sense of loss & possibly regret over not having chosen the other road. he recalls the divide in the yellow wood & makes his assessment with a sigh.

professor further supported his argument by showing us the bleaker, lesser known poetry of robert frost. the one about the end of the world ("fire & ice," which professor found hilarious), & another about how things inevitably lose their luster.

this lecture, circa 1998, came back to me the other day when i was in the car half spaced out, half listening to coldplay. there's a song on prospekt's march that touches on the idea that everything that glitters isn't gold. i'm not saying coldplay was inspired (or depressed) by the poetry of frost, but the lyrics sound kinda like frost's "nothing gold can stay" (below).

nature's first green is gold,

her hardest hue to hold.

her early leaf's a flower;

but only so an hour.

then leaf subsides to leaf.

so eden sank to grief,

so dawn goes down to day.

nothing gold can stay.

and from coldplay's "lost"- "every river that i tried to cross, every door i ever tried was locked, & i'm just waiting 'til the shine wears off." i resonate with the poem & song, but not in the fullest sense. i agree w/frost. nothing here, even of the highest material value, will remain. everything in its present form will fade away. which informs our affections & drives our goals.

"come, buy and eat! come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. why spend money on what is not bread, & your labor on what does not satisfy? listen, listen to me, & eat what is good, & you will delight in the richest of fare. give ear & come to me; listen, that you may live. i will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to david... seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near" (isaiah 55:1-6).

even from the book about life's vanity, with its numerous references to our fleeting pleasures & meaningless toil, the final word is "remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, i have no pleasure in them" (ecclesiastes 12:1).