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The road not taken

Robert Frost

The works of:

AMER MAHMOOD YOUSAF

ADITYA KUMAR PATHAK

EAVENTAJADO

Robert Frost The Road Not Taken

Biography

•Born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California.

•As a young boy Frost loved to hear his mother read, which introduced him to a variety of literature.

•The grief and suffering due to the deaths of a son and daughter led Frost to poetry.

•Due to complications from surgery Frost died on January29, 1963.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I couldTo 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 thereHad worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to wayI doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere 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. 

Summary

The speaker stands in the woods, considering a fork in the road. Both ways are equally worn and equally

overlaid with un-trodden leaves. The speaker chooses one, telling himself that he will take the other another day. Yet he knows it is unlikely that

he will have the opportunity to do so. And he admits that someday in the

future he will recreate the scene with a slight twist: He will claim that he

took the less-traveled road.

Poem structure

The Road Not Taken Frost Critical Analysis. "The Road �Not Taken", written by Robert Lee Frost, is a poem that has four five-line stanzas with only two end rhymes in each stanza (abaab). Several kinds of literary devices can be found in the poem. One of the literary devices employed is antithesis.

Poem structure cont.

It contains four stanzas and each one contains five lines each. This is called a quintain, hence this poem is made up of four quintains. In total this makes twenty lines thus a middle sized poem. 

Poem structure cont.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, (A)And sorry I could not travel both (B)And be one traveler, long I stood (A)And looked down one as far as I could (A)To where it bent in the undergrowth; (B)

ABOUT THIS POEM:

Meaning:

The literal meaning of this poem by Robert Frost is pretty obvious. A traveler comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go to continue his journey. After much mental debate, the traveler picks the road "less

traveled by."The figurative meaning is not too hidden either. The poem

describes the tough choices people stand for when traveling the road of life. The words "sorry" and "sigh"

make the tone of poem somewhat gloomy. The traveler regrets leaves the possibilities of the road not chosen

behind. He realizes he probably won't pass this way again.

ABOUT THIS POEM:

Devices:

There are plenty literary devices in this poem to be discovered. One of these is antithesis. When the

traveler comes to the fork in the road, he wishes he could travel both. Within the current theories of our physical world, this is a non possibility (unless he

has a split personality). The traveler realizes this and immediately rejects the idea.

Yet another little contradiction are two remarks in the second stanza about the road less traveled. First

it's described as grassy and wanting wear, after which he turns to say the roads are actually worn about the same (perhaps the road less traveled

makes travelers turn back?).

ABOUT THIS POEM:

Personification:

All sensible people know that roads don't think, and therefore don't want. They can't. But the description

of the road wanting wear is an example of personification in this poem. A road actually wanting

some as a person would. However: some believe this to be incorrect and believe "wanting wear" is

not a personification, but rather older English meaning "lacking". So it would be "Because it was

grassy and lacked wear;".

What dose First Stanza mean ?

the speaker describes his position. He has been out walking the woods and comes to two roads, and he stands looking as far down each one as he can see. He would like to try out both, but doubts he could to that, so therefore he continues to look down the roads for a long time trying to make his decision about which road to take.

Second Stanza ?

He had looked down the first one “to where it bent in the undergrowth,” and in the second stanza, he reports that he decided to take the other path, because it seemed to have less traffic than the first. But then he goes on to say that they actually were very similarly worn. The second one that he took seems less traveled, but as he thinks about it, he realizes that they were “really about the same.” Not exactly that same but only “about the same.”

Third Stanza ?

The third stanza continues with the cogitation about the possible differences between the two roads. He had noticed that the leaves were both fresh fallen on them both and had not been walked on, but then again claims that maybe he would come back and also walk the first one sometime, but he doubted he would be able to, because in life one thing leads to another and time is short.

The Theme Which one to take, that is the question! 

However, many of us agree that we would like to choose

the more travelled path because we are more likely to

know what the coming result is.

Taking the more challenging way is too threatening or difficult for an average person.  

Apparently the road not taken by the majority is the second one—grassy and wanted wear.

Initially, the poet depicted the uncertainty and the mental suffering of making choices.. 

Before making his decision, the poet had his

mental struggle,

[L3]“be one traveller, long I stood”.

After comparing the two roads,

he [L13]“kept the first for another day”.

However, he knew there was no chance to return, though he stated that

“I doubted if I should ever come back.”[L15]

    

The poet knew he had only one life

And he would like to lead a different one. Gradually, he gained confidence in his choice. At the end

of the poem he urged and encouraged that people should try something new instead of following others.  

‘I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference’.

 

   

The last point is the ambiguity we see in the poem. Frost is too wise to be absolute.

He never denied every possibility. Balancing each choice, he made his

choice but still left room for readers

to have their final say.  

  

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;

Guide Questions:1.  Describe the season shown in the poem? 2. What is the problem encountered by the

persona?3. What is does he do about it?4. What does this stanza imitates in real

life situation?

Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claimBecause it was grassy and wanted wear,Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,

Guide Questions:1. Which road did he choose? Describe

the kind of road that he had chosen.2. What does he mean with “Because it

was grassy and wanted wear?”3. What do you think why he choose that

road?

And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to wayI doubted if I should ever come back.

Guide Questions:1. What are the evidences that he chose a

road less traveled by? In what line?2. Is he regretful of his decision? Why or

why not?3. What does this stanza reveals real life

situation?

I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere 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. 

Guide Questions: 1. What do the 16-17th line stands for?2. What “difference” does the persona

mean?3. In relation to the writer’s life, what

does this stanza means?

Works Cited ADITYA KUMAR PATHAK. URL: http://www.slideshare.net/Aditya-Kumar-Pathak/the-road-not-taken-robert-frost-24204671?qid=d6c7bf56-22b9-4c89-90d9-5db79d81ba02&v=qf1&b=&from_search=9

AMER MAHMOOD YOUSAF. URL: http://www.slideshare.net/irmaratel/literary-devices-in-the-road-not-taken?qid=6c30b4db-d8a2-4143-b240-f5bf429f7f5f&v=qf1&b=&from_search=2

Eloise Aimee Aventajado. URL: http://www.slideshare.net/eaventajado/robert-frost-24895155?qid=58cbf283-e2dd-480f-bf24-a2f8cb4ec027&v=qf1&b=&from_search=1

"Robert Frost Biography - life, family, children, story, death, wife, school, mother, young, son, old, information, born, college, contract, house, time, year." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. <http://www.notablebiographies.com/Fi-Gi/Frost-Robert.html>.

Robert, Frost,. Road not taken, and other poems. New York: Dover Publications, 1993. Print.

www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/RoadNot.html