Name: __________________________________ Date: __________ Period: __
The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
Propensity for Density - Activity 3
(originally published in 1916)
Stanza
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 ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and II took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Number of
Lines
Number of
Words
Number of
Letter “e”
Number of
Letters
Number of
Characters
1
2
3
4
The dimensions of the dashed boxes around the stanzas of the poem The Road Not Taken, show all four have the same area; use this assumption to:
1. List the stanzas in order from highest to lowest with respect to density of the number of words per stanza: ________________________________
2. List the stanzas in order from highest to lowest with respect to density of the number of “e” per stanza: __________________________________
3. List the stanzas in order from highest to lowest with respect to density of the number of letters per stanza: ________________________________
4. List the stanzas in order from highest to lowest with respect to density of the number of characters per stanza: _____________________________
© Copyright 2014 – all rights reserved
www.cpalms.org
Key
Name: __________________________________
Date: __________ Period: __
The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
Propensity for Density - Activity 3
(originally published in 1916)
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 ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and II took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Stanza
Number of
Lines
Number of
Words
Number of
Letter “e”
Number of
Letters
Number of
Characters
1
5
37
15
140
143
2
5
35
18
148
153
3
5
37
14
142
147
4
5
35
20
135
140
The dimensions of the dashed boxes around the stanzas of the poem The Road Not Taken, show all four have the same area; use this assumption to:
1 and 3, 2 and 4
1. List the stanzas in order from highest to lowest with respect to density of the number of words per stanza: ________________________________
4, 2, 1, 3
2. List the stanzas in order from highest to lowest with respect to density of the number of “e” per stanza: __________________________________
2, 3, 1, 4
3. List the stanzas in order from highest to lowest with respect to density of the number of letters per stanza: ________________________________
2, 3, 1, 4
4. List the stanzas in order from highest to lowest with respect to density of the number of characters per stanza: _____________________________
© Copyright 2014 – all rights reserved
www.cpalms.org