The Road Not Taken-Robert Frost
Summery
The poem discuses a person who walks in the wood and at some point of his trip he gets to a fork (a place where the road separates into several different roads). Now, he has to choose which way to walk down. He looks down both roads for as far as he can see (“To where it bent in the undergrowth”).
Both road look pretty the same (“ as just as fair”), but one road had more appeal- “having perhaps the better claim”, and it looked as if not many people walked on it (“wanted wear).
Finally decided which way to take, the person (the one who talk in the poem) says to himself that one day he would come back and take the road which he didn’t this time (“ I kept the first for another day”). Right after that he admits that one road leads to another, so it is very unlikely that he would return to the same road once again (“I doubted if I should ever come back”).
the last stanza (בית) talks about a day in the future, when he will be thinking of that day when he had to choose between these two roads, and that the fact he chose the one less traveled by made all the difference in his life (“ i took the road less traveled by and that has made all the difference”).
Interpretation
This poem has many symbols in it:
- The wood itself is a symbol of life. A person walks through his life.
- The roads are a symbol for choices- each person has to make decisions in his life, so in this poem, while the wood is life, the different paths in it are the choices each person must do in order to get through his life.
- The undergrowth (סבך) is a symbol for obstacles. Through each road, there are many obstacles a person has to overcome in order to get to his destination. In this poem, the person decided to walk the road that had more obstacles- the road less travelled by.
- the “fork”(התפצלות הדרכים)-in the poem is when the person had to choose which wat he is going to walk down, but in real life it symbolizes the point in life when a person has to make a decision.
The entire poem is about a simple man who is making a choice in his life.
In the last stanza, the person thinks of his choice with a sigh. This sigh can be interpreted in two ways:
- He is very happy with his choice and the sigh is of relief.
- He regrets his choice and the sigh is of a tired disappointed man.
Ways to answer questions (thinking skills)
Comparing and contrasting:
- Finding similarities or differences between two or more things.
- Drawing conclusions based on differences and similarities.
- In this poem, the person compares and contrasts between the two roads ahead.
Words you can use: like, similar, also, similarly, in the same way, unlike’ compared to, in contrast with, however, although, yet etc.
Evaluating:
- Making judgment about the text and justifying (proving) your opinion.
- Evaluating someone else’s opinion
- In the poem we use this thinking skill when evaluating the person’s choice
Distinguishing different perspectives:
- Identifying different points of view in the text.
- Identifying different points of view among the readers of the text.
Words you can use: point of view, however, looking from the side, narrator outlook, on the one hand, side, angle etc.
Explaining cause and effect:
- Identifying the cause and the result of actions or events that happened in the text.
- Explaining the connection between the cause and the result.
Words you can use: cause, effect, result, consequence, end, outcome, and in order to, thanks to, due to, provoke etc.
Explaining patterns:
- Identifying and explaining the patterns in the text and saying why they are important.
Words you can use: repeat, repetition, significance, similar, recur arrangement, rule
Inferring:
- “Reading between the lines “and understanding what is not written in the text.
Words you can use: infer, deduce, conclude, read between the lines, assume etc.
Problem solving:
- Identifying a problem and its solution in the text
- Finding a problem in the text and suggesting a solution of your own to it.
Words you can use: find out, solve, answer, explain, decipher, trouble, crisis etc.
May the odds be ever in your favor!
Good luck!!!
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