Prepared by Alenka Blake, I. gimnazija v Celju
Robert Frost
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco in 1874.
At the age of 11 (after his father died), he moved to New England. At high school he met his wife and
started writing poems. He went to Harvard College but, already a father and with his wife pregnant,
left it before graduation.
Frost started farming in New Hampshire, but was not very successful. Moreover, he lost two children
to influenza. In 1912 he sold his farm and moved with his family to London, England. Frost hoped to
have some poems published there.
As World War I broke out, he moved back to New Hampshire where he started his teaching career.
He taught at various universities. By the end of his career he was showered with honours. He
received over 40 honorary degrees and four Pulitzer Prizes (an award for achievements in the field of
literature, journalism, etc.).
In 1961 he read at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, which was an honour for the president as well as
Robert Frost.
Robert Frost died in Boston at the age of 89 in 1963.
*When Amherst College (Massachusetts) built the Robert Frost library president Kennedy was a
keynote speaker and said: “What power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”
Adapted from various online sources: http://www.biography.com/people/robert-frost-20796091
Prepared by Alenka Blake, I. gimnazija v Celju
INTERESTING BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Lawrance Thompson (Frost’s official biographer; Frost chose him himself) wrote a three-volume biography of
Robert Frost. This book portrays Frost’s private life in a way that completely contradicts his public life. Frost
was loved by Americans, and they could identify with his poetry simple in language and expression. In the
public eye, Frost was regarded as a kind man. In private, he treated his children harshly and did not seem to be
kind at all. His relationship with his wife was an awful one, and the same goes for his relationship with his
colleagues at universities where he lectured.
At one point, Frost asked his friend Stanley Burnshaw to protect him from Larry (i.e. Lawrance Thompson). This
is how a conversation between them went:
After his long silence, he raised his head and gazed in my eyes. “I’m counting on you to protect
me from Larry.”
I lurched at him in amazement. He nodded steadily. “But he’s you r official biographer! You picked
him.”
“I’m counting on you,” he repeated gravely. “You will be here. I won’t.”
“If you need protection, simply undo what you did.”
“Too late now.”
Robert Frost is often called a “Nature Poet”. Consider this nickname as you look at some pictures of the New
England landscape that so often inspired the poet.
Prepared by Alenka Blake, I. gimnazija v Celju
The Road Not Taken
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 I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
STRUCTURE
Four stanzas
Roughly in iambic (dee-DUM) rhythm (for the most part iambic tetrameter – i.e. four times dee-DUM)
A B A A B rhyme scheme
INTERPRETATION
STANZA 1
- What time of the year is it? How can we know? What does the time of year suggest?
- What regrets does the speaker (i.e. the “I”) talk about?
- How would you interpret “And” at the beginning of lines 2, 3 and 4?
STANZA 2
- How is the decision to take the “other” road made?
- How do you understand “as just as fair” in the first line?
- How are the two roads regarded?
STANZA 3
- What idea is carried on from the second stanza?
- Why are the last three lines contemplative?
- Is the speaker naïve in his (her?) contemplation? Why? Why not?
STANZA 4
- In what way is the last stanza evasive?
- How do you see the decision made by the speaker in connection with the title “The Road
Not Taken”?
Prepared by Alenka Blake, I. gimnazija v Celju
GENERAL INTERPRETATION
-
Woods can be seen as a metaphor of life. How old is the speaker? What are the decisions like when
one is in those years?
The poem is about lost opportunities. Do you agree? Why?
“The Road Not Taken” is about individualism. It is a statement of nonconformity. Do you agree?
Why?
Some see the speaker as a very courageous person. Do you agree? Why?
Does the final stanza contradict other parts of the poem? If you agree, where do you see
contradiction?
CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THE POEM WAS WRITTEN
In England, Frost met Edward Thomas who was also a poet. The two poets often went for walks and
Thomas was always indecisive about which road to take in the woods. This gave Frost the idea for his
poem. Frost wrote it in 1915, when he was back in the USA.