The River Not Taken
—after Robert Frost
The sloop’s main sail was hoisted tight
But in the fog I now was lost;
I reached where half the stream veered right
The other left. Encroaching night
Meant I must choose; but at what cost?
I had no time and so chose West
To where I knew the sun would set;
That Eastward might yet still be best—
Was something which I could not test
And left me with a vague regret.
What can you do? You choose, then go;
The past is narrowed to a strait
And what you chose three leagues ago
Determines all you think and know
And somehow navigates your fate.
Your world view—drawn from all you learn—
Is such a river. Where you start
Means less than how you trim and turn,
For from this choosing you’ll discern
Your own lived truth and moral chart.
Your sails catch wind and now you’re caught
From now until you breathe your last;
Each prejudice and hope and thought,
Each fact that you have learned and taught—
Is borne from choices past and passed.
Joseph Weighs His Brothers’ Fates
—a rondeau
If I forgive them, then they’ve won—
They profit from the web they spun
Convinced they are both skilled and smart
As each one plays his cunning part.
They’re not my brothers! No, not one!
Should I seek vengeance? Shall I shun
And mock, assault, enslave and stun?
I’d have to sheathe each poisoned dart
__If I forgive…
Yet, once my rage-filled acts are done
Might not the violence I’ve begun
Just rip my tattered soul apart?
Would it not salve my wounded heart
To see each as my father’s son
__If I forgive?
Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals. He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel Bleeding Stone. He lives in Bradenton, Florida.
As a person who has had many “vague” (and not so vague) regrets about the many choices I made at various forks in the river of life, your poem “The River Not Taken” really speaks to me, especially the last phrase, “choices past and passed.” Couldn’t be said better or more succinctly!!! I have often thought about writing a “forks in the river” book where various alternate histories would play out in how the story enfolds and ultimately ends. And I like your “Joseph” rondeau– it gives us insight into Joseph’s internal workings and cogitations of his mind as he comes to the ultimate decision to forgive his brothers. Well done as always, Brian!
Thank you very much indeed, Theresa. I’m also one of these people who has had many a regret, some vague and some which hit me on the top of the head like a hammer! Still, what else can you do? You choose and go.
Brian,
It is the endings of both poems that linger in my mind, each marked by a creative brilliance that raises words from one level to a higher one.
Rare for truth to be stated so succinctly and with such finality as this:
From now until you breathe your last;
Each prejudice and hope and thought,
Each fact that you have learned and taught—
Is borne from choices past and passed.
But the best of all is the clever and inspired twist in ending your insightful rondeau as a question.
Thank you very much, James. I’m extremely grateful for your kind words and especially gratified that my attention to the endings of these pieces worked well for you!
Brian, that – “which should I choose” – dilemma is something so many of us have to contend with when we reach the point where that decision has to be made, but every now and then, luckily or not, ‘Fate’ steps in to make it for us.
I don’t believe one – at least not I, can adequately sooth their (my) soul through ‘Forgiveness’ alone – depending on the grievance – without appropriate restitution to some degree, but I definitely know how stubborn a conscience can be.
Both excellent renderings –
Thank you very much, Mark! I’ve missed you and hope to see more of your work soon!
Fabulous, especially The River Not Taken – a great conceit and allusion in itself: roads have one set of connotations, but a rivers others. And in this case that sense almost of the life force, chi or prana on which we all have to hoist up our sail (or ‘sale’ in my case of course!) and as you pointedly comment: every thing counts, ‘each fact’, nothing is unimportant as we reach, respectively, our final destinations. Great writing.
Thank you so much, James! I love the symbolism afforded by rivers — the nautical, the natural and the spiritual — so many associations! Mark Twain’s Mississippi, Britain’s “Sweet Afton”, the sacred Ganges, the scary Styx. Write about a river and there are 100 potential associations looking over your shoulder.
“The River Not Taken” uses an epigraph that alludes to Frost’s famous poem, but Yapko’s poem is in fact much more intellectually serious than Frost’s. It is more philosophically and psychologically penetrating, since it makes the speaker’s choice much more consequential in terms of his worldview, his prejudices, his beliefs, his knowledge, and future actions. This is especially clear in the last three quintains, which are seriously discursive rather than just impressionistic. Frost is a great poet, but his tendency was to affect a clipped New-England taciturnity at times. His last words that “…and that has made all the difference” seem very weak compared to Yapko’s ending.
The poem in the voice of Joseph show how a small fixed form like the rondeau can have a major effect on how well a poem tells a story. If this had been written as an ordinary dramatic monologue in blank verse or rhyming couplets, we would not have the intensity that we have here. But the rondeau’s tripartite rigid form and fixed rhyme scheme allow us to see Joseph’s natural resentment, his desire for vengeance, and his final choice to forgive — all intensely focused in each section. Everything is clear and exact. This gives a real backbone to the scriptural story.
Let me add this — in both poems we can see the basic argument that those of us in the movement to revitalize the traditional practice of English verse are making. We want the clarity, the discursiveness, the intellectual seriousness of metrical verse. Brian Yapko is giving those things to us.
Frost admits his poem is whimsical,
but it is intellectually serious too,
very, “a tricky tricky poem” indeed.
[apologies for the walled link–
I’ll see how to share the full thing]
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1559684
I actually love Frost’s poem. One of the reasons I wrote this one — partly to express my own views on how one develops character, partly as homage to a great poet. Thank you for commenting.
I would like to thank you individually, Joe, for your extremely generous comment regarding my “River” poem and the inspiration it took from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” I was always somewhat dissatisfied with Frost’s ending and did indeed hope to write something some might perceive as a bit more decisive. It was a difficult poem to write in some ways because Frost only had four quintains and I found that inadequate for my needs, so I had to add in an extra. I like to think that distances my piece a little from his. And as I mentioned below, although this poem may seem simple I have come to see it as one of my very favorites.
Thank you as well for the insight regarding Joseph. As you may have guessed, I did originally consider this as a dramatic monologue, but found it very unsatisfactory. Condensing it into a rondeau, I felt, gave it an emotional intensity that I could not otherwise achieve.
I’m very grateful for your final points. I strive to make my work as clear and readable as possible. I’m glad it works for you. Thank you again!
Good poems Brian. A nice take on Frost’s famous work, and then your take on the Bible story. In a way, the second poem asks the same question asked in the Iliad about the wrath of Achilles: is forgiveness best? Joseph chose forgiveness in the end, proving himself wiser than the Greek hero.
Generally I do think forgiveness is best, David. But it works out better when there is authentic, honest repentance on the receiving side. Thank you so much for your great comment!
Both poems offer food for thought in dramatic form. “Now you’re caught” is indeed the current on which you’re borne. Nautical terms like “league” and “trim” add so much to the fix we are in. If I could return to my former state, I often wonder what would have been my fate. Thinking of brothers’ dirty laundry, certainly left Joseph in a quandary. Forgiving others is never easy, especially if they have been so sleazy.
Thank you so much, Roy. I’m especially glad that you appreciated the nautical terms. I’m not nautical in the least but since you are a musical fan you might be interested to know that my piece was partly inspired by the imagery in The Beachboys’ “Sloop John B.”
Kudos Brian! I enjoyed both poems very much. Choice is a gnawing topic that I see in the clinic all the time. It also what makes us human. There is no way around the pain of choosing. I really loved the second poem about Joseph and his brothers. To forgive or not forgive? That is the question. I have no answer.
Thank you so much, Golan. You deal with such consequential decisions and yet they all boil down to that decision– right or left, east or west? And no one can know what might have happened if one had chosen differently…
I love the way you reflect the thoughts of Frost’s poem; and I love the way you get inside of Joseph’s mind. You’ve made both poems about the turns and twists of decisions.
Thank you so much, Cynthia. Joseph was a difficult poem because we already know the outcome and yet it seemed worthwhile to try to piece together how he got to his decision.
In the first poem Yapko is flexing his muscles, possibly beating Frost at his own game: tennis with a net. Salemi (above) got it just right. Brian’s flights always end with a KO.
Thank you so much, Kip! I’m not sure about beating Frost, but I sure had fine pondering his work and taking inspiration from it.
An excellent poem. I found that each stanza of the poem speaks to the struggle to forgive another person for wrongs suffered because of them, showing the progression of thought that one goes through in deciding to forgive.
In the first stanza, you understand the desire that another person not feel satisfied in the pain they have caused another, and also the desire within the person who was hurt to completely reject any connection with the offender. “They’re not my brothers! No, not one!”
Then the second stanza gets practical. What form would a lack of forgiveness take in action? “Shun and mock, assault, enslave, and stun?” Who among us has not, at one time or another, felt the desire to retaliate against another person for a perceived – or actual – hurt of offense? You show that forgiveness would mean “sheathing” each of his retributive “darts” should he choose to forgive.
With the third stanza, I relate to your understanding that forgiveness is as much about settling our own soul as it is about an action or attitude toward another person. Rather than viewing the offender as an enemy, “would it not salve my wounded heart to see each as my father’s son.” Here you understand that strife within families can be the most bitter, acknowledging that to not forgive the offending family member would “rip my tattered soul apart.”
Thank you for this insighful work!
Rusty, I wanted to also address this comment individually because it is both lucid and highly insightful. Thank you for this. Yes, this was very much about going through the human struggle to choose forgiveness even when every fiber of one’s being wants to wallow in self-pitying resentment and retaliation. Forgiveness may come easy to some, but I have found it to be an internal battle in which it takes some real distance, thought and meditation to allow “the better angels of my nature” to prevail. I hoped that a reader might understand that it is not effortless and you really helped clarify this. Thank you again.
Dear Theresa, James T., Mark, James S., Joe, John, David, Roy, Golan, Cynthia, Kip and Rusty — my deepest gratitude to all of you for your generous comments regarding both “River” and “Joseph.” I apologize for responding so late to your gracious words but have been on a sabbatical and unavailable to respond earlier. I would like to especially thank those of you who discussed “The River Not Taken.” In the course of my poetry-writing, I find that this piece is one of the most favorite things that I have written. All my best to each of you. And thank you!
Brian, the river is a more fitting metaphor than the road, with all due respect to Frost, and you used it accordingly. Roads are built by humans, while rivers are part of nature, which includes humans, and it is able to carry them, which a road is not. Your actions are a matter of choice, but you can’t choose your river’s source. And although all your facts are born form your choices, the river is always on the background. And it was a mighty river that took Joseph to his decisions. Thank you for the treat!
Thank you very much indeed, Michael! The lore surrounding rivers is vast — as is their symbolism. I fully agree with your analysis regarding the way rivers are part of nature and which actually transport people. They can do more than that. They can sustain life. Or they can cause a person to drown. They are a much more meaningful symbol of life and death than a road. And as you imply with Joseph, the rivers of the Bible carry their own deep associations: the Nile, the Jordan… Mention the Rhine or the Tiber or the Volga or the Amazon and a huge number of associations crop up. There is no road in the world that can do that.