Road Not Taken.
1. Who is the speaker and why is he/she speaking?
- Robert Frost, speaking as a traveler.
2. Why is the speaker “telling this with a sigh?”
- They are “telling this with a sigh” because they are reflecting on a decision they made on which road to take.
3. What symbols are evident in this poem?
- Mostly the road, and the yellow woods.
4. Is the poem a metaphor? For what?
- Yes, I think it is a metaphor for life. The “road” is the path you take in your life. The “road less traveled” is a lonely road, thus in point, the other road must have been the opposite. (Hence, saying it with a sigh, as he doesn’t know what the other road could have offered him.)
5. Why does Frost title the poem “The Road Not Taken” instead of “The Road Taken?” Would changing the title change the meaning of the poem? How?
- I think he called it “The Road Not Taken” as a curiosity of if it were taken. If he had called it “The Road Taken” it would have seemed more like a story, instead of an nostalgic memory.
6. What specific poetic devices does Frost use? How do these enhance the theme of the poem?
- He uses a lot of pauses and uneven rhyming in the poem. It keeps the reader more in tune with the poem, if he hadn’t have used this approach, it might not have been as appealing.
7. Some people think this is a simple poem with a nostalgic tone. Others think it has a far darker meaning. What do you think?
- I think it’s in between. It’s has a nostalgic tone, yes, and the poem is not that complex, but if you really listen to what he’s saying, you’ll understand that the poem is not really about two roads in the woods, it’s actually about facing the hardships of having two opportunities to choose from. Also, it acts as nostalgia because now, he’s reflecting on what could have been if he taken the other “road.”
8. In Bruce Springsteen’s song “Glory Days,” the singer muses on the nostalgic impulse: “I hope when I get old I don’t sit around thinking about it, but I probably will… . Time slips away and leaves you with nothing, mister, but boring stories of glory days.” How do these words relate to the poem? Explain.
- They relate to the poem because it talks about getting older and thinking about what you could have or would have done differently.
9. “The Road Not Taken” first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in August 1915. Does it have the same relevance today? Explain.
- Yes, because it still holds the same message, no matter how old it is. The poem talks about the road not taken, and everyday, we are faced with a decision to take road A or B and that something everyone, young or old can relate to.
10. What relevance does this poem have to your life?
- It holds relevance to me the most now that I’m going off into university. I’m gonna be facing a lot of roads, and I know that later on in life, I might have a lot of “what if’s” to if I had chosen a different career path.
