I insisted on taking up English Literature during Form 4 and 5. In fact, (when we moved to KL after my PMR), my dad and I scouted through schools in Subang Jaya, looking to see if they offered English Lit. as it was not a very common subject taught, especially in schools.
In the end, we did locate one school in Subang that offered this and till today, I still remember the poems, short stories, novel and drama that we had to read and analyze throughout the whole course.
Of course we had great fun. These classic works of art were like an escape from the usual mundane school syllabus (at least it was for me). It was like as if I was at home, reading a book and imagining I was one of the characters. Anyway, the point of this post is to display one of my favorite poems that I learned at the time.
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.
I'm sure you can derive the initial meaning of the poem from the title but the poem itself is quite deceiving. Sure, it talks about how different things would be, had we decided to take alternate choices in life, instead of the most common ones. But Frost himself warned, "You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem - very tricky." *winks*
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