Skimming through PoemHunter

Reading Robert Frost On PoemHunter.com

“This,” wrote Risha Ahmed (nine years old)
“is one of the best poems I have come across!”
while Viraj Bhanshaly (V. J.) confessed
“I love the road not taken, i lyk the rhyming …,
can u read my poems pleaz and tell me if theyre good
… thanks.”

Ronnell Warren Alman writes
“I had to recite this poem … in the eighth grade.
I received an A+.
… still remember the first five lines! ! ! !

This truly states you don't have to be like everyone else
and take the same path. Because you take the other path
does not mean you are lost. You are just different.
It shows you are creative and that you are courageous
to see just what that other path holds.”

But Shaun Delgado disagrees

“This,” he wrote, “is not a poem about choosing a road
less traveled. The poem specifically states
that at the time of the decision, both roads had been worn
and appeared nearly identical.
It's only years later, when details have succumbed
to a fading, sentimental memory,
he says the roads differed. This poem has no intent
to try and persuade people to take an original path.
It is, instead, a humorous analysis of the speaker's
sentimentality
and the ways he will change the story in a fit of nostalgia.”

I think of Billy Collins’ students
beating poetry “with a hose
to find out what it really means”
but hope I stand, enthusiastically,
with Viraj Bhanshaly and Risha Ahmed (nine years old)
before divergent roads; exultant and unsure.