The road not taken

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 3

The road not taken (1915) - Robert Frost

March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963

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;

What is the rhyme schem of this stanza?
would/ both/ stood/ could/ growth

What does the word 'yellow' imply?

1. the type of tree
2. the time of year
3. the time of day
4. all of these

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,

What do these lines mean?
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

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.

What literary device is used here?
wanted wear

1. assonance
2. personification
3. alliteration
4. onomatopoeia

How do these line relate to life?
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

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.

Is the speaker happy with the choice he made? Why do you say yes/no?

Are the stanzas in this poem

1. Couplets
2. Quatrains
3. Quintets
4. Sestets

What could the roads be a metaphor for?