Questions to Ponder:

1. Point out the figures of speech used in the poem.

2. What details of the surrounding woods does the observer note?
3. What quality about the woods does he find especially attractive?
4. What do you think are the promises he has to keep?
5. What is the effect of the repetition of the last two lines?
6. Complete the rhyming pattern by taking the last word of every line and mark with letters
from a-z based on ending poetic feature. Complete items 1- 20
Ex. 1. Wood -a
2. Both -b

3. Stood -a

4. Could -a

5. Undergrowth -b

20

Note: if another rhyme exists aside from wood-stood (a) and both- undergrowth (b) then use
another letter c-z.

The Road not Taken

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

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 leave no steps had trodden back.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on the way
I doubted if I ever should come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I
I took the one less travelled by
And that has made all the difference.