The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

Collections pgs. 281-284

Paragraph Response: At the end of the poem, the speaker says that choosing the road “less traveled” has “made all the difference.” However, the poem is titled “The Road Not Taken.”

Write an explanation as to why the poet might have titled the poem this way.

Support your ideas with text evidence from the poem.

Give the poem another title, based on your interpretation of the poem.

Use capital letters, punctuation, correct spelling, and proper grammar.

Robert Frost (1874–1963) is considered one of the outstanding American poets of the twentieth century. Born in San Francisco, California, he moved with his family to New England when he was eleven. His first poem was published in 1894. Frost drew inspiration for much of his poetry from New England life and the countryside where he grew up and lived for most of his adult life. He was honored with many awards throughout his life, including four Pulitzer Prizes.

Two roads diverged[1] 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[2] 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.