Road not taken

1. Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost

2. Analyzing the poem: ART WARS
• A – about
• R – Repeated idea (theme) – choosing which path to take
• T – Tone – regretful or relieved? Not sure?
• W – words – sorry, fair, doubted, all the difference
• A – alliteration – wanted wear, ages and ages
• R – rhyme – what is the rhyme scheme? How does it affect
the tone?
• S – Structure – remember the images on the PPT slide…
• [Teacher can refer to teacher’s notes below to gain an
understanding of how to guide students here.]

3. 1. What is your understanding of
the title of the poem?
2. What do you think this poem
is about? Why do you think so?

4. Stanza 1
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;

5. Stanza 1
• The speaker has been out for walking in the
woods and comes in between the diversion of
two roads, he stands there looking as far
down each one as he can see. He would like to
try out both, but doubts he could do that, so
therefore he continues to look down the roads
for a long time trying to make his decision
about which road to take.

6. Symbolism
• light,
• hope,
• promise
• His future is bright and
stretches before him.
Yellow
• image of a quiet, deserted
place where the speaker is left
alone to decide.
Woods

7. Stanza 2
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,

8. Stanza 2
• The speaker selects the road that appears at
first glance to be less worn and therefore less
traveled. This selection suggests that he has
an independent spirit and does not wish to
follow the crowd. After a moment, he
concludes that both roads are about equally
worn.

9. Symbolism
Road
•the paths we take in life
•Every road leads to a specific place
•nature of one’s destination
depends entirely on the decisions
that are made.

10. Stanza 3
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.

11. Stanza 3
• Leaves cover both roads equally. No one on
this morning has yet taken either road, for the
leaves lie undisturbed. The speaker remains
committed to his decision to take the road he
had previously selected, saying that he will
save the other road for another day. He
observes, however, that he probably will never
pass this way again and thus will never have
an opportunity to take the other road.

12. Symbolism
Morning
•a new beginning
•endless possibilities the
day ahead has to offer.

13. Stanza 4
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.

14. Stanza 4
• In this poem the word “difference” is taken in
a positive way. But there is nothing in the
poem that suggests that this difference signals
a positive outcome. In years to come, the
speaker says, he will be telling others about
the choice he made. While doing so, he will
sigh either with relief that he made the right
choice or with regret that he made the wrong
choice. Whether right or wrong, the choice
will have had a significant impact on his life.

15. Questions
• What is the theme of the poem?
• What is the metaphor of the poem?
• What is the dilemma of the poem?
• Does the title sound optimistic or pessimistic or confusing? Why?
• What do you think about the tone of the poem? How can you
tell? Which words or phrases convey this tone?
• What kind of person do you think the narrator is? How can you
tell?
• Why do you think it made a difference for the poet to take “the
road less travelled”? can you imagine why it would make a
difference to take the road less traveled, instead of taking the
road that everyone else has taken?

16. Message of the poem
• Robert Frost’s poem “ The road not taken” seems to
hold out the mortal that life is a continuous journey
full of divergence now and then. The important thing
is to move on without looking back whether the
choice of paths taken was right or wrong. The right
or wrong are relative terms. We cannot get
everything in life and have to make choices.
Whatever direction in our life takes is determined by
the choice made by us . In the journey of life, one
can seldom come back to travel the ‘roads’ not taken
earlier.

17. Robert Frost 1874-1963
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California
but spent most of his life in New England, a rural
area in the north east of the United States. The area
is characterized by hills, woods, farms and small
towns. Frost himself worked for many years as a
farmer, in addition to teaching English and writing
poems. His poems reflect the sights and sounds of
where he lived, the fields, farms and woods and
scenes of everyday life. All those elements make
Frost’s poems accessible, leading readers to
understand the deeper truths behind seemingly
simple ideas
© Michal Preisler