The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
America's poet Biography Wikipedia
Answer the questions below [on Frost's life, times and works]
This poem is usually interpreted as an assertion of individualism, but critic Lawrence Thompson has argued that it is a slightly mocking satire on a perennially hesitant walking partner of Frost's who always wondered what would have happened if he had chosen his path differently.
What evidence can you find in the poem to support each of these views?
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.
Questions on Robert Frost's life and works
1. What roads haven't you taken? [reference to the poem above]
2. What professional activities did Robert Frost engage in throughout his life?
3. What losses did he suffer?
4. Who was Elinor?
5. What are the main characteristics of his poetry?
6. What other pieces of biographical information do you deem pertinent?
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Ilustrações dos temas na base da página por: Wellington Mendes da Silva Filho