Decision making

Walking in the Gwaun valley on an afternoon when summer seemed over but autumn not yet begun, we arrived at this gateway warning in English and Welsh, the latter being the mam iaith (mother tongue) hereabouts. No prohibition, no threat, just the simple statement of fact and the choice is yours: to enter the inviting woodland and risk meeting a bull or to turn aside and follow the road. After all, isn't life just like that? At every juncture there's a decision to be made, a risk to take or to avoid, a loss or gain that cannot be predicted. Weighing up the factors, I judged that the notice was very old, and the wood looked bovine-free, so on we went. And there was no bull.

Inevitably the moment recalled the poem said to be America's favourite, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. It's often referred to as The Road Less Travelled and is regarded as encouragement to free spirits to reject conformity. But the poem is not so simple: Frost described it as 'tricky - very tricky' and on careful reading the irony is clear; there is little to choose between the two paths, the choice could have been made on the toss of a coin and the outcome ('that made all the difference') is specious: we never can know what the other route would have led to so there's no basis for comparison.

A recent book on the poet Edward Thomas, a great friend of Robert Frost, reveals that the poem had a significant bearing upon Thomas's decision to fight in the Great War. The two friends had spent much time walking and talking in the English countryside and Thomas, who was inclined to prevaricate, often regretted that they had followed one direction instead of another. He was to be equally indecisive when war broke out. Frost had returned to America and invited Thomas to bring his family over and join him in New Hampshire. Afraid of being thought a coward, Thomas vacillated although as a married man with children he was under no pressure to enlist. When Frost sent him a draft of the poem he took it personally and reacted with anger. Frost protested that the poem was a piece of foolery and never intended seriously. But it tipped the balance for Thomas and he joined the Army in 1915. He was killed at the battle of Arras in April 1917, by a stray shell fired after the engagement. For Edward Thomas there was a bull on the path.

Anyone interested in this subject can find a fuller account here.