The Road not taken

1. The Road not taken LO: to understand why the poem is relatable To see the use of literary techniques to help create setting

2. The Road Not Taken-Robert Frost • Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair,And having perhaps the better claimBecause it was grassy and wanted wear,Though as for that the passing thereHad worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally layIn leaves no step had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to wayI doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere 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.

3. Vocabulary • diverged: branched off; moved in a different direction • undergrowth: small trees and plants growing beneath larger trees • fair: promising; favourable • claim: demand or right • trodden: walked on • hence: from this time

4. Meaning -Title The speaker made a choice, and took a path. In taking that path, he gave up his chance to take the other one. Metaphorically, this means that the speaker is reflecting on his life choices, and how they are going to affect his life. What could have happened if he made a different choice? What his life would have been like?More than anything in the text of the poem, this title hints that the poem is about lost opportunities, and the complexities of choices, not just choosing the path that is fresh and new.

5. Rhyme scheme/structure/stanzas • This poem has a pretty complicated form. The poem consists of four stanzas with five lines each. These are called quintains. And in each quintain, the rhyme scheme is ABAAB. For example, take the first stanza:Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, (A)And sorry I could not travel both (B)And be one traveler, long I stood (A)And looked down one as far as I could (A)To where it bent in the undergrowth; (B)The rhythm of the poem is a bit trickier. It is basically iambic, which means that there is one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (da DUM). There are many variations in this poem, most of which are anapestic, which means that there are two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable (da da DUM).If you read the poem aloud, you should be able to hear four distinct beats per line. It will sound roughly like this: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM.Let's look at the first line as an example. Stressed syllables are in bold and italic.Two roads | diverged | in a yell|owwoodEach of the four feet in this line is iambic except for the third, because both "in" and "a" are unstressed syllables, making it an anapest.So this poem has a rhythm and rhyme scheme, but they depart a little from the norm, just like the speaker of this poem, who chooses his own path.

6. Setting • Our setting is in a forest, but it's not "lovely dark and deep" like the woods in one of Frost's other famous poems, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Instead, these woods are yellow. It's fall in this poem – the trees are turning colors, and the leaves are falling. There's a nice little road, probably gravel or dirt, running through the woods, which suggests that there's a good amount of traffic running through here. But it's early enough in the morning that the fallen leaves are still fresh on the road, and one road is even grassy. Neither road shows much sign of wear.

7. Imagery In The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost uses imagery to really describe his surrounding."And both that morning equally layIn leaves no stop had trodden black.Oh, I kept the first for another day!"Robert Frost says that the leaves hadn't been trodden black and this puts an image in my head of a perfect layer of leaveson a forest floor or along a trail. It may put a different image in your head but the important thing is that it puts an image inyour head.

8. Assonance • In the first line the poet uses assonance. Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound within a line of poetry. In the first line it says Two roads diverged in a yellow wood • The “o” sound is repeated in “roads” and “yellow”

9. Metaphors ? • Take a look at the poem and see if you can find any line in the poem where there is a specific metaphor. • The poem as a whole is a metaphor. A metaphor can be defined as a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to a person idea or object which is not literally applicable. Robert Frost is comparing the paths in life to the choice one must make when reaching a crossroads. The poem speaks of the actual choices in life as roads one must choose to take. Metaphorically the roads represent choices in life.

10. Questions for understanding ? . What is the speaker in the poem doing? What does the speaker encounter? What decision does the speaker have to make in the poem? Infer the season. How do you know? Describe the conflict the speaker feels. Why do people find this poem relatable?