The Road Not Taken                           

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.

 

Robert Frost

 

Questions     

                                                                                                           

 

  1. At the beginning of the poem, what is the speaker's feeling about the two roads?

 

 

  1. How are the roads different and how alike?

 

 

  1. How does the speaker decide which of the two roads to take?

 

 

  1. Explain lines 13-15.

 

 

  1. Is there any way of telling how long the speaker has been traveling the "less traveled" road?  Explain.

 

 

  1. What might the two roads stand for in the speaker's mind?  Discuss.

 

 

  1. The last line of the poem is suggestive.  What might it mean?  Discuss.