Analysis of I Saw Him on the Road Less Taken

About this poem

Unlike the strict masculine tone of the ABAAB rhyme scheme of Robert Frost’s five lines, four-stanza 1915 poem “The Road Not Taken,” this poem, “I Saw Him on the Road Less Taken,” with its protagonist as an adventurous maiden, employs a softer, more gentle four lines, ten-stanza ABAB rhyme scheme to depict the human journey on the byways of life as being more akin to that of John Bunyan’s 1678 allegory, “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” displaying the folly of human weaknesses, while revealing the boldness of hidden human strength in the audacity of courageous fearlessness; for the intrepid traveler to dare to take the “Via Dolorosa,” the Dolorosa Road and the pathway of our Lord, Jesus Christ which, while being thorny, is The Victorious Way of Suffering that leads to our heavenly destination of salvation. A Postscript: On Tuesday, May 16, 2023, sixteen months after this poem, “I Saw Him on the Road Less Taken” was initially composed and published online, my beloved wife, Florence Hershell Pu, presented me with a Catholic religious tract, inviting me to take a look at its contents. Unbeknownst to her, she was delivering to me a message that would help to divinely interpret a poem of mine that she has yet to see or read. Upon opening the pamphlet, I shortly encountered an account of a religious supernatural experience by St. Faustina (1905-1938). St. Faustina wa a Polish Catholic religious sister who once had a vision of two distinct roads that earthly folks follow; the one quite broad, and the other quite narrow. St. Faustina describes her vision this way: “ One day I saw two roads. One was broad, covered with sand and flowers, full of joy, music and all sorts of pleasures. People walked along it, dancing and enjoying themselves. They reached the end of the road without realizing it. And at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice; that is, the abyss of hell. The souls fell blindly into it; as they walked, so they fell. And their numbers were so great that it was impossible to count them. And I saw the other road, or rather, a path, for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks; and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes, and all kinds of suffering befell them. Some fell down upon the rocks, but stood up immediately and went on. At the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness, and all these souls entered there. At the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings.” This depiction of St. Faustina’s vision is strikingly meaningful to the message in this poem. It highlights and amplifies the core message, also depicted in Psalm One of the book of Psalms in the Holy Bible, which distinguishes the godly soul from the ungodly soul, instructing the reader of the consequences of which path or road is taken during the journey of life. Psalm One reads as follows: 1. ”Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. 3. And he shall be like a tree planted in the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. 4. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6. For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Each of us is on a journey of life, with a holy book of instructions to guide us. The choice is ours which path we take. more »