ROBERT FROST (1874-1963) 

ROBERT FROST

• Robert Lee Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) an American poet, was born on 26 March 1874 in San Francisco, California. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life . His work frequently employed settings from rural life in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes.

ROBERT FROST

• On January 29, 1963, he died, in Boston, of complications from prostate surgery. He was buried at the Old Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont. His epitaph reads, "I had a lover's quarrel with the world." 

PULITZER PRIZES

A popular and often-quoted poet, Frost was honored frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer prizes.

• 1924 for New Hampshire: A Poem With Notes and Grace Notes

• 1931 for Collected Poems

• 1937 for A Further Range

• 1943 for A Witness Tree

OFT QUOTED Famous Works• The Road Not Taken

‘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.’

• Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening ‘The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.’

OFT QUOTED Famous Works

• Mending Wall

‘Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.’• After Apple-Picking

‘My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still,

And there's a barrel that I didn't fill

Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.’

NOTES FROM THE POET• Frost claims that he wrote this poem about his friend

Edward Thomas, with whom he had walked many times in the woods near London. Frost has said that while walking they would come to different paths and after choosing one, Thomas would always fret wondering what they might have missed by not taking the other path.

• About the poem, Frost asserted, "You have to be careful of that one; it's a tricky poem - very tricky." And he is, of course, correct. The poem has been and continues to be used as an inspirational poem, one that to the undiscerning eye seems to be encouraging self-reliance, not following where others have led.

• But a close reading of the poem proves otherwise. It does not moralize about choice, it simply says that choice is inevitable but you never know what your choice will mean until you have lived it.

This poem starts with the author walking through the woods. He comes to a fork in the path and is in dilemma about which path to take...does he take the path that is traveled by everybody, or the one rarely traveled upon? He decides to take the road less traveled by. By taking this path he changes his life in some way unknown to the reader.

The Road Not Taken is a twenty-line poem with the rhyme scheme abaab 

The poem consists of four stanzas. In the first stanza, the speaker describes his position. He has been out walking the woods and comes to two roads, and he stands looking as far down each one as he can see. He would like to try out both, but doubts he could do that, therefore he continues to look down the roads for a long time trying to make his decision about which road to take.

The poet had looked down the first one ‘ to where it bent in the undergrowth’ and in the second stanza, he reports that he decided to take the other path, because it seemed to have less traffic than the first. But then he goes on to say that they actually were very similarly worn. The second one that he took seems less traveled, but as he thinks about it, he realizes that they were ‘really about the same.’ Not exactly same but only ‘about the same.’

The third stanza states the possible differences between the two roads. He had noticed that the leaves were freshly fallen on them both and had not been walked on, but then again claims that maybe he would come back and also walk the first one sometime, but he doubted he would be able to, because in life one thing leads to another and time is short

The fourth stanza holds the key to the trickiness of the poem: as stated with the word ‘sigh’. 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. However we can interpret this poem as suggesting non-conformity. Take the word “difference” to be a positive difference.

Though we usually associate the word ‘sigh’ with regret , the word ‘sigh’ in the poem can however be interpreted in terms of connoting a positive difference. The sigh can be taken to be as one of nostalgic relief;. Frost asserts that the choice was all which made the difference.

WORD CONNOTATION

THEME OF THE POEM

This is a wonderful poem with many different themes and ideas. One of the prime themes is not being afraid to take a chance. Some of the other themes include, not following the crowd, trying new things and standing for something. This poem stated that the author "took the one (road) less traveled by, and that has made all the difference" so the author is telling the reader that we too should not be afraid to take a less frequented path.

POET’S MESSAGE

•Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” has been one of the most analyzed, quoted, anthologized poems in American poetry. A wide-spread interpretation claims that the speaker in the poem is promoting individualism and non-conformity.