Tuesday, July 8, 2008

A Road Less Traveled ...Painting and Poem

A road less traveled...

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 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.

Poem by Robert Frost


This poem is from the public domain, and I discovered it after I had completed this painting. Poetry and art have some things in common, in that they can stir emotions. In that regard they sometimes compliment each other. If you want to say "stir emotions" in art-speak, you would say " enhance the aesthetic appreciation of the viewer"!!!
You can tell I don't like art-speak.

Visit this article by Steve Atkinson which I stumbled across to see how this poem relates to the artistic journey.
Well that's it for a short post today, and hope you enjoy the painting and poem.

2 comments:

Francis Shanahan said...

eh...that's Robert Frost, I dunno who Browning is ;)

Jim Shanahan said...

Apologies, I knew it was Frost, don't know where that came from. Must have had a blank moment! I changed it now. :)