Behind the Headlines
Today, the Supreme Court hears arguments regarding access to the drug mifepristone in an election-year case with far-ranging implications for the future of reproductive rights in America. The drug is the most common method for inducing abortion in the early weeks of pregnancy, but since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, Republican-led states have moved to ban access to it. Find out more about the events, people, issues, and groups in today’s headlines.
Mifepristone Is on Today’s Supreme Court Docket
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Frost at 150
Today marks the 150th birthday of Robert Frost, one of the most beloved and accomplished poets in American history. To mark the occasion, here are three of Frost’s most enduing works that everybody should read at least once in their life.
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Is there a more perfect poem? With stunning economy, Frost ruminates on death without directly addressing it, employing the ordinarily picturesque backdrop of a horse-drawn sleigh ride in the woods. It’s a sly, lyrical work that asks big questions with simple language—ending with a repeated line that erases any doubt what the poem is really about.
“The Road Not Taken”
The last three lines of this 20-line poem are what everybody remembers. “Two roads diverged in a wood and I—/I took the one less traveled by/And that has made all the difference.” While the statement is often cited as an inspirational declaration of individuality, its meaning has long been disputed by critics and readers—and Frost himself, who claimed it was a parody of the Georgian poet Edward Thomas.
“Fire and Ice”
“Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.” So begins one of Frost’s most succinct (only nine lines long) and well-remembered works. Notably, this meditation on hatred and apocalypse was written in 1920, not long after the end of WWI.
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