The poem describes a traveler coming to a fork in the road in a yellow wood. The traveler could not take both paths and stood looking down one path trying to see where it led. Both paths seemed equally fair, but the traveler chose the path less traveled which was grassy and showed less signs of wear, though the paths seemed equally worn. The traveler doubts returning but will someday recall taking the less traveled path, which made all the difference.

1. Ms. Mills

2.  Allusion
 Theme
 Inference
 Stanza
 Paraphrase

3. Reading Between the Lines
Making Inferences

5.  Explicitly stated in the text
(you cannot find the answer on the page –
the answer is in your head)
 Based on opinion

7.  (1904)
 Evelyn Tooley Hunt won
the Sidney Lanier
Memorial Award for her
first collection of
poems, Look Again,
Adam. Her poems
typically reflect the
interest in other
cultures. Hunt states, “I Evelyn Tooley
like to write from the
inside of some culture Hunt
other than my own.”
She is best known for
her variations of haiku
and writes under the
pen name of Tao-Li

8.  (1874-1963)
 Robert Frost is one of
the best know American
poets. He was a four-
time winner of the
Pulitzer Prize. He lived
on a farm in New
Hampshire; many of his
poems are set in rural
New England. Robert
Frost’s poem, "The Gift
Outright” was read in
1961 at President John
F. Kennedy’s

9.  Partner read the poem
 As you and your partner read, record the
inferences made for each stanza and pair of
lines on the right side of the T-Chart.
 Write an essential message (main idea) of
the poem, based on your inferences.

11. Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

12. Nature's first green is
gold,

13. Her hardest hue to hold.

14. Her early leaf’s a flower;

17. So Eden sank to grief,

21.  How do we learn lessons about life?
 Define beauty. Is it tangible or
intangible?
 Think of some colors, what do
specific colors represent?

22.  Partners read the poem
 As you and your partner read, record the
inferences made for each stanza and pair
of lines on the right side of the T-Chart.
 Write an essential message (main idea) of
the poem, based on your inferences.

24. Poem My Inferences
My mother taught me purple
Although she never wore it.
Wash-gray was her circle,
the Tenement her orbit.
My mother taught me golden
And held me up to see it.
Above the broken molding,
Beyond the filthy street.
My mother reached for beauty
And for its lack she died,
Who knew so much of duty
She could not teach me pride.

25.  Copy and Answer the questions on the
back of your paper.
 (Exit Ticket) “In Taught Me Purple, what
does the speaker say her mother taught
her? What does each color represent to
the speaker”

26. 1. Students number
off.
2. Teacher asks a
question.
3. Students think and
write.
4. Heads Together:
share & discuss.
5. Teacher calls a
number, student with
that number
answers.

27. 1. What do gold and purple represent in
“Taught Me Purple”? How do you know this?
Support your answer with examples and
details from the poem.
2. What connections can you find between
“Taught Me Purple” and “Nothing Gold Can
Stay?” How do you know this? Support your
answer with examples and details from both
poems.

28. 3. Look at “Taught Me Purple” and “Nothing
Gold Can Stay.” Which lines best emphasize
a loss of innocence? How do you know this?
Support your answer with examples and
details from the text.
4. Using both pieces, explain how writers use
figurative language to enhance the essential
message in their writing. How do you know
this? Support your with examples from the
text.

29.  Guiding Question: How will you breathe
life into a chosen color?
 Personification = when the writer gives
human characteristics to a non-human
thing (in this case COLOR)
 Directions: Write an original poem using
Color/Colors to represent you.

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