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The (Deadly?) Origins of ‘The Road Not Taken’

Many were the walks when Thomas would guide Frost on the promise of rare wild flowers or birds’ eggs, only to end in self-reproach when the path he chose revealed no such wonders. Amused at Thomas’s inability to satisfy himself, Frost chided him, “No matter which road you take, you’ll always sigh, and wish you’d taken another.”

Matthew Hollis explores how the friendship of Robert Frost and English poet Edward Thomas led to Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” — and how the poem contributed to Thomas’s death in World War I.

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