The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost Robert

The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost

Robert Frost (1874 -1963) ❖ A famous American poet, born in San Francisco but grew up in Massachusetts. ❖ Attended Dartmouth and Harvard for his education and worked as a teacher and farmer. ❖ In 1912 he moved with his family to England returned as a famed poet in 1915 ❖ He often wrote of life in New England (the upper northeast states of the US) as a way to examine social and philosophical themes ❖ He often wrote of nature and complex human emotions in a very honest and direct way

The Road Not Taken Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

Questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. What rhyming scheme does frost use here? What is the problem or issue in this poem? What does the “road less traveled by” mean? What do you think of the narrator’s decision, are they happy or regretful of their decision? What does the “sigh” indicate? 5. When have you encountered a similar decision? Which “road” did you take?