The poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is about a traveler who comes to a fork in the road in a yellow wood and must choose which path to follow. While both paths look equally fair, the traveler chooses the less traveled path, believing it will make the biggest difference. The poem uses the metaphor of diverging roads to represent important life choices and symbolizes the theme that choosing the unconventional or less popular option can lead to a more meaningful outcome.

1. The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
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2. Poetry
Definition – Writing in language chosen and arranged to
create a particular emotional response through
meaning, sound and rhythm.
• “Poetry can communicate before it is understood” (T.S.
Eliot)
• “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and
the thought has found words” (Frost)

3. Choice & Cost
Every choice you make has a cost because choosing
to do one thing means giving up the opportunity to
do something else.
Faced with the same options , different people make
different choices because each person has his / her
own way of making decisions based on different
values and beliefs.
When faced with the need to make a decision we try
to think about the cost and guess the outcome.

5. The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
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.

6. Analysis and Literary Terms
• What is the poem about ?
• The poem is about a dilemma, the need to
come to a decision / solve a problem
• This is the theme of the poem
– Theme – the central philosophical idea of a story
or poem. We can usually find the theme by asking
ourselves – what is the poem / story about?

7. • Is the speaker really standing in a forest
thinking which way to go
• The road symbolize
The road = Life
– Symbolism - the use of a concrete image (symbol)
to represent an abstract idea.

8. • The main dilemma in the poem
The speaker is at a fork in the road – he has to
choose which way to go.
• The fork in the road is a metaphor for a point
in life when you need to make a choice.
• A metaphor is a type of comparison in which
one thing is described as if it was something
else (example: life is a box of chocolates)

9. • The speaker solve his dilemma
– He compares the two roads
– He weighs the pros and cons
– He tries to foresee the future
• Road does he choose was
– the less traveled by
– The more adventurous / the less conventional ??

10. Problem Solving
Problem solving is a thinking skill the involves:
• Identifying the problem
• Considering the options
• Weighing the pros and cons of each option
• Reaching a decision