Biography Of Robert Frost

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

ESCUELA VOCACIONAL

Ana Delia Flores Santana

"The Road Not Taken"

By: Robert Frost

http://hcu15.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/road-not-taken.jpg

Brian Arraut Álvarez

English 10th

Mrs. Páez

10mo Grade

Table of Content

Biography of Robert Frost…………………………………………………………………….1

First Reading…………………………………………………………………………………..2

Second Reading……………………………………………………………………………..2-3

Summarize the poem………………………………………………………………………......3

What poetic devices are used?................................................................................................3-4

Mood and Tone

Structure

Imagery

Answer

Biography of Robert Frost:

http://www.biography.com/imported/images/Biography/Images/Profiles/F/Robert-Frost-9303322-1-402.jpg

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Francisco, California, where he spent his childhood. In 1885, after his father died of tuberculosis, the Frosts moved to Massachusetts. There, Robert graduated from high school, sharing top honors with a student he would later marry, Elinor White.

Frost attended Dartmouth and Harvard, married Miss White in 1895, worked farms, and taught school. In his spare time, he wrote poetry. Disappointed with the scant attention his poems received, he moved with his wife to Great Britain to present his work to readers there. Publishers liked his work and printed his first book of poems, A Boy’s Will, in 1913, and a second poetry collection, North of Boston, in 1914. The latter book was published in the United States in 1915.

Having established his reputation, Frost returned to the United States in 1915 and bought a small farm in Franconia, N.H. To supplement his income from the farm and his poetry, he taught at universities. Between 1916 and 1923, he published two more books of poetry—the second one, New Hampshire, winning the 1923 Pulitzer Prize. He went on to win three more Pulitzer Prizes and was invited to recite his poem "The Gift Outright" at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in January 1961. Frost died in Boston two years later. One may regard him as among the greatest poets of his generation.

First Reading: Words to know (Copy 10 new words with their English meaning).

Diverged: To go or extend in different directions from a common point; branch out.

Stood: to take a position as indicated.

Bent: Determined to take a course of action.

Undergrowth: Low-growing plants, saplings, and shrubs beneath trees in a forest.

Perhaps: Maybe, possibly.

Lay: To place in or bring to a particular position.

Trodden: to set down the foot or feet in walking; step; walk.

Doubted: To be undecided or skeptical about.

Sigh: To exhale audibly in a long deep breath, as in weariness or relief.

Hence: For this reason; therefore.

Second Reading:

What’s up to the title?

The title of this poem can be the key to interpret it. The title "The Road Not Taken", focuses on the poem of lost opportunities, the road not taken. However, he decided to take one path. By taking this path, abandoned his opportunity to take the other. Metaphorically, this means that the speaker is reflecting on their life choices, and how they will affect your life. This title suggests that the poem is about the loss of opportunities, and the complexity of the decisions, not only choose the path that is fresh and new.

What’s the literal message of the poem?

Literally, "The Road Not Taken" is about a traveler who walks into the forest and found two ways. The traveler can not travel both roads and therefore must make a decision to take a path. Evaluate and choose which path to choose the road less traveled, realizing that he cannot return. The poem ends when the traveler indicated that their choice of the road less traveled has made all the difference.

What’s the figurative meaning of the poem?

Figuratively, "The Road Not Taken" can be applied to a person's life. The traveler is a person who has two options, which are represented in the poem by the two paths in the forest. This person takes the time to consider both options and choose to take one of two paths. The traveler cannot return to the road and the other as in life if a choice is made, it is impossible to redo. The person has to take many times, decisions that may change their lives forever.

Where is the setting?

This poem is set in a forest. This forest is yellow, where our walker will walk. It is autumn in this poem, as the trees are changing colors and the leaves are falling. It is a very nice path where fallen leaves are still fresh in the way and is a way that shows no signs of wear. Walker runs into two paths and is considering taking one of them.

Summarize the poem:

Our walker has reached a yellow forest trail. It is autumn, and the leaves are changing colors. Walker runs into two paths. Look down a path far as I can see, but then decides to take the other. He thinks the way you decide to take is not so worn, because really, the roads are almost the same. Walker reflects on how he plans to take the road not taken one day, but probably never suspected. Instead, far away in the future, will be talking about how his decision was final and life changing.

What poetic devices are used? (2 examples for each one).

The poem has many of poetic devices like:

Metaphor: Extended metaphor throughout the poem, representing different journeys and paths we take on our lives.

Personification: 1. "Because it was grassy and wanted wear"

Imagery: 1. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood"

2. "And both that morning equally lay, in leaves no step had

trodden black".

Repetition: 1. "And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

2. "knowing how way leads on to way",

Symbolism: Road

1. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood".

2. "And both that morning equally lay".

Nature

1. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood"

2. "Because it was grassy and wanted wear".

Rhyme: 1. "And sorry I could nor travel both"

"To where it bent in the undergrowth"

2. "In leaves no step had trodden black".

"I doubted if I should ever come back".

Mood and Tone

How would you describe the poet’s attitude toward the subject?

The tone of this work is presented in an unsafe attitude, since the writer is in a dilemma that casts doubt on the way he chose to travel. A dilemma, metaphorically, are the decisions that are taken in our own lives. Life is a choice, so that think it over before taking because there is no repeating in a life and only a regretting after taking wrong choice.

Which are the themes?

Themes

Choices – "The Road Not Taken", focuses on the concept of choice. Walker, you have to choose which direction to take.

Dreams, Hopes, and Plans- Choices, like the choice "The Road Not Taken," are linked to the future. The speaker of this poem realizes that his choice of path will change his life.

Individualism - The speaker chooses to go his own way, taking the "road less traveled" (line 19).

Caution - The speaker takes time to consider the other road. He says, "long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could" (lines 3-4).

Commitment - The speaker does not have second thoughts after making his decision.

Accepting a Challenge- The speaker chooses is less traveled because it presents trials or perils. Such challenges seem to appeal to the speaker.

Structure:

What kind of poem is it? (Form and Meter)

"The Road Not Taken" is a lyric poem. A lyric poem presents the poet's feelings and emotions rather than telling a story and the language is very simple. The stanzas follow a regular rhyme scheme of abaab. These are called quintains. And in each quintain, the rhyme scheme is ABAAB. For example, 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)

Which are the symbols?

Nature- this poem centers on two roads, going through the woods in autumn. Nature in this poem sets the scene, and could hold metaphorical meaning as well.

Roads- his poem is about actual and figurative roads: the roads we walk and drive on, and the roads we take through life. As the speaker of this poem discusses, for every road we take, there's a road we don't take. Wrong turn or not, the roads we take can end up making significant changes in our lives.

Haw many stanzas does the poem have?

The structure of the poem is a straight forward series of five line stanzas. Each stanza presents us with a single idea. The first sets up the metaphor which is then extended through the rest of the poem. The second takes us onto the decision making process. The third considers the consequences of the decision, whilst the final stanza is one of the reflections that will be undertaken at a later date.

What is the rhyme scheme?

The rhyme scheme of the poem is as follows: (1) abaab, (2) cdccd, (3) efeef,

(4) ghggh. All of the end rhymes are masculine that is, each consists of a single syllable. The rhythm of this poem is iamb tetrameter. Each line consists of nine syllables and four feet. The first three feet are iambs, whereas the last foot is an anapest.

Copy examples of end rhyme. Copy examples of internal rhyme.

End rhyme: first stanza: wood, stood, could / both, undergrowth

second stanza: fair, wear, there / claim, same third stanza: lay,day,way / black, back

fourth stanza: sigh, I, by / hence, difference

Copy examples of internal rhyme.

"Yet knowing how way leads on to way.

Copy examples of to end stopped.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Is there any refrain? Copy the refrain.

The refrain is only once raised in "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" (first stanza) and "Two roads diverged in a wood" (seventeenth line).

Imagery:

What figures of speech are used? (personification, similes, metaphors, and onomatopoeia).

Metaphors: The entire poem is an extended metaphor. A metaphor compares two things by saying one object is another.

Personification: "Because it was grassy and wanted wear". He is saying that the grass wanted wear, but the grass does not have feelings or needs. So it is personification.

This poem doesn’t really have any similes or onomatopoeia.

Are symbols used? Explain them.

Road

Line 1: This line sets the scene where a traveler is in a path that is divided. He used the roads as symbols, as the walker has to choose between one way and another. Symbolizing the decisions to be taken in life.

Line 1: This poem takes place in autumn. It symbolizes that the speaker is making this election in the autumn of his life, when he is beginning to age.

Lines 13-15: The speaker wants to be able to take two paths, but realizes that the nature of these roads is such that it will probably never be able to return to this place. The path we chose, symbolizing the decision that changed his life and made a difference.

Nature

Line 1: This line uses nature which tells us that forests are yellow, and gives us a clear picture that the poem takes place in the fall.

Lines 11-12: In this line we see that the images fall below, and we realize that it is morning and the leaves are just falling.

Line 18: The first line is repeated. Return to mention the forest, but without mentioning that the forest is yellow.

Which is the most significant poetic technique applied?

The most significant poetic technique applied in this poem is the imagery. Images are important because it allows the reader to build a description in your mind of what the writer describes in the poem, allowing you, interact with it and interpret it in their own way.

Answer:

Do you think the road the speaker took was really the less traveled one? Why?

Apparently, according to the speaker, that was the road less traveled. The poem says that morning equally lay, but Walker understood that this required use and this was the path he should take.

What problems might arise from making this choice in life?

May not arise any problem with this decision to take our walker. Sometimes in life you have to make decisions, sometimes tough and sad. Every day we have to decide between right and wrong. The consequences of our actions are our responsibility. Sometimes we make decisions that mark us forever.

What do you think the chances are that the speaker will get to come back and try the other path?

He, at one time, of these choices hesitated and thought about turning on his feet to go the other way.

Do you think the speaker regret his choice; or is happy about it?

He, at one point, hesitated on the path I was traveling, but finally said that he chose the way, made ​​a difference in his life.

What type of choice do you think these forks in the road represent for the speaker?

Frost himself, had to choose in your life, leave the road most traveled, his legal career and become a poet. Frost is in a forest when their path fork, recalling his youth is faced with the dilemma that is raised between law and literature. Frost chose life in the way of art, a road that is not traveled.

What personal choices does this poem remind you of?