Robert Frost

(1874-1963)
 Early years

 He was born in San Francisco on March 1874.

 His mother Isabelle Moodie was a schoolteacher and his
father William Prescott Frost , Jr. , a journalist and local
politician.
 He moved to New England at the age of eleven and
became interested in reading and writing poetry during
his high school years in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
 He was enrolled at Dartmouth College in 1892, and later
at Harvard, though he never earned a formal degree.
Adult years
 He worked as a teacher, cobbler and editor of the
Lawrence Sentinel.
  His first professional poem, "My Butterfly”(1894).
 In 1895, Frost married Elinor Miriam White, who
became a major inspiration in his poetry until her death
in 1938.
 The couple moved to England in 1912 and it was abroad
that Frost met and was influenced by contemporary
British poets.
 He returned to the United States in 1915 and published
 two full-length collections,  A Boy's Will and North of
Boston.

 His collections include New Hampshire (1923, Pulitzer

Prize), Collected Poems (1930, Pulitzer Prize), A Further
Range (1936, Pulitzer Prize), and A Witness Tree (1942,
Pulitzer Prize).

 His work is principally associated with the life and

landscape of New England.

 He used colloquial language, familiar rhythms, and

common symbols to express both its pastoral ideals and its
dark complexities.
 Robert Frost lived and taught for many years in
Massachusetts and Vermont, and died in Boston on
January 29, 1963
The Road Not Taken
Rhyme Scheme

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, a

And sorry I could not travel both
b
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could a
To where it bent in the undergrowth; a
b
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear, a
Though as for that the passing there b
Had worn them really about the same, a
a
b
And both that morning equally lay a
In leaves no step had trodden black. b
Oh, I marked the first for another day! a
Yet knowing how way leads on to way a
I doubted if I should ever come back. b

I shall be telling this with a sigh a

Somewhere ages and ages hence: b
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, a
I took the one less traveled by, a
And that has made all the difference. b
Content
 The speaker is trying to make a decision about which
road to take.
 He takes the less travelled, but then he realizes that both
paths were “ really about the same”
 Meditation about the possible differences between the
two roads.
 At the end he cannot know how his choice will affect his
future, until after he has lived it
 There is no right path.
 Alliteration Consonance
Sound Devices / t/ /d/
/d/
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, /t/
And sorry I could not travel both /w/
/s/ /θ/
And be one traveler, long I stood
/k/ /r/
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; /b/
/l/

Then took the other, as just as fair, /ð/ /n/

And having perhaps the better claim /p/ /r/
Because it was grassy and wanted wear, /b/
Though as for that the passing there
/t/
/w/
Had worn them really about the same, /ŋ/
 Alliteration Consonance

And both that morning equally lay /b/ /t/

In leaves no step had trodden black. /l/ /ŋ/
Oh, I kept the first for another day! /h/ /z/
Yet knowing how way leads on to way /d/
I doubted if I should ever come back. /w/

I shall be telling this with a sigh /t/

Somewhere ages and ages hence: /s/
/ð/
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, /z/
/s/
I took the one less traveled by, /d/ /d/
And that has made all the difference.
Assonance

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, /oʊ/

And sorry I could not travel both /e/
And be one traveler, long I stood /ʊ/
And looked down one as far as I could /ɒ/
To where it bent in the undergrowth; /æ/
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim /e/
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
/æ/
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay /i:/
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day! /æ/
Yet knowing how way leads on to way /a:/
I doubted if I should ever come back. /ʌ/
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence: /æ/
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, /e/
I took the one less traveled by, /i/
And that has made all the difference. /ʊ/
Robert Frost recited his poem "The Gift Outright"
at President Kennedy's inauguration. (1961)
The Gift Outright
The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
repetition
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.
Something we were withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living,
And forthwith found salvation in surrender.
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright
(The deed of gift was many deeds of war)
To the land vaguely realizing westward,
But still unstoried, artless, unenhanced,  catalogue
Such as she was, such as she would become.  repetition
 Content
 The American story of colonialism, freedom, westward
expansion.
 Americans could not draw a national identity because
they were still tied to England.
 The clash between the Old World and The New World
 “The deed of gift was many deeds of war”= A
discussion of the Revolutionary War and remorse that
the battle over the land caused so many deaths.
 The quest to develop an American culture.