INTRODUCTION
Robert Frost is usually considered America’s most beloved poet. Born on March 26 in 1874, his poems are often set in rural New England and capture the colloquial speech of his time. Yet the poems manage to examine complex social questions. Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and read one of his poems aloud at Kennedy’s presidential inauguration.
This Frost poem appeals to teenagers and to old people. As you listen try to decide why.
Have you ever felt that there is no one, no other person in the world, like you? It’s kind of a lonely feeling. There is no one who feels like you do, no one who can even understand what it feels like to be you? Have you had these feelings? What do you do with them? Think about that as you hear the poem. Know that the word ‘diverged’ means ‘split apart from each other.’
POEM
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
by Robert Frost
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 every 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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AMERICAN POETRY: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, VOL. 1 2000. New York: Library of America. ISBN 1883011779
EXTENSION
Have a discussion based on these questions. What are you thinking? What parts do you like? What is the ‘difference’ the poet refers to in the last line?
What do you notice about how the poem is crafted? Write down one thing that you noticed about the rhyme, rhythm, figurative language, or images.
How can a teenager and an old librarian both get meaning from this poem?
Robert Frost is usually considered America’s most beloved poet. Born on March 26 in 1874, his poems are often set in rural New England and capture the colloquial speech of his time. Yet the poems manage to examine complex social questions. Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry and read one of his poems aloud at Kennedy’s presidential inauguration.
This Frost poem appeals to teenagers and to old people. As you listen try to decide why.
Have you ever felt that there is no one, no other person in the world, like you? It’s kind of a lonely feeling. There is no one who feels like you do, no one who can even understand what it feels like to be you? Have you had these feelings? What do you do with them? Think about that as you hear the poem. Know that the word ‘diverged’ means ‘split apart from each other.’
POEM
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
by Robert Frost
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 every 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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
AMERICAN POETRY: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, VOL. 1 2000. New York: Library of America. ISBN 1883011779
EXTENSION
Have a discussion based on these questions. What are you thinking? What parts do you like? What is the ‘difference’ the poet refers to in the last line?
What do you notice about how the poem is crafted? Write down one thing that you noticed about the rhyme, rhythm, figurative language, or images.
How can a teenager and an old librarian both get meaning from this poem?
Photo courtesy of
No comments:
Post a Comment