Yet, Frost himself puts the poem on such an ambiguous footing with the last line being uttered in a tone that does not match the rest of the work. The tone may be understood to be one of whimsy and shrugging shoulders -- or it may be understood to be one of solemn pride and satisfaction. Indeed, for the president of Amherst College, where Frost was invited to stay, "Road" was a rallying cry of liberal education. Yet, the poem was hardly intended to be that at all. Frost himself indicated that the poem was tricky and could be easily misinterpreted. As Pritchard notes, it was meant only to be a poem in which Frost was teasing his friend (125). The poem, however, was read by the Amherst's president and by men like Keating as something more profound.
In other words, "Road" went from being a small, satirical poem to a great, big poem, latching onto a popular kind of youthful ambition and sincerity (the Huck Finn kind -- embracing the wide open; rejecting convention, rules, and stagnant traditions). Even Frost himself seems to have embraced the second reading, taking joy in the poem's effect on individuals who saw it not as man's ineptitude to make his way through life -- but as man's impulsive need to make his own way through life. The reality behind Frost's poem (upon which it is based) is that the attempt is so often unsuccessful -- which is why the poem was written in a satirical vein.
This reality is manifested in the film Dead Poets Society. Neil fails...
Pressured to abandon his dream (his own road), Neil kills himself, extending Frost's satirical meaning in the poem in a tragic way. Likewise, Keating fails to break through the academic bureaucracy and firmly establish himself as a lasting presence in the school. Keating is blamed for Neil's suicide and is forced to leave his profession.
In conclusion, it is the desire to make his own way through the curriculum presented him by the academic board that drives Mr. Keating in Dead Poets Society. To him, the curriculum is empty of life: it reduces poetry, the world, the human spirit, love and life to a formulaic system of beats, rhythms and rhymes. In the film, Keating inspires the boys to strive for a Romantic spirit. He instructs them to take the road less traveled because the one that the school wishes them to follow is bland, insipid, empty, cold and ultimately dead. The irony, however, is that Keating's advice leads to death as well -- Neil's. Yet, out of the ashes of Neil's death, rises a new spirit in his classmates, who defy their new instructor and boldly pronounce their loyalty to Keating -- the man who taught them to think for themselves and believe in the spirit of individualism.
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken." Bartleby. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.
Pritchard, William H. Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993. Print.
