The Road Not Taken and Other Poems by Robert Frost

One hundred years after its publication, Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" remains among our best-loved poems, and its author perhaps our most widely-read poet. The poem's premise, drawn from Frost's walks and conversations with the poet Edward Thomas, is deceptively simple: a man at a fork in the road, either physical or metaphorical, chooses the less travelled route. Yet its narrative is infused with all that makes Frost one of the great American poets. A poet of duality, the placid, pastoral surfaces of his lyrics belie their subtle innovation and thoughtful explorations of nature--both the verdant one around us and our own. "The Road Not Taken" embodies Frost's great narrative: it is a story about the stories we tell about ourselves--stories full of doubt and possibility that end up creating our lives. In the end, we never know which road is superior because there are no simple conclusions in Frost's poems, but it is their very resistance to resolution that keeps them so enchanting and challenging after a century of reading.

The Road Not Taken and Other Poems presents Frost's greatest early work, selected by award-winning poet David Orr. Collecting work from Frost's first three books--A Boy's Will, North of Boston, and Mountain Interval--this volume includes beloved poems like "After-Apple Picking," "The Oven Bird," and "Mending Wall," all written in Frost's early years of brilliant, isolated artistic creation. David Orr's introduction discusses why Frost remains so central (if often misunderstood) in American culture and how the beautiful intricacy of his poetry keeps inviting in generation after generation to search for meaning in his work.