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

1. What is the speaker in the poem doing?
   
2. What does the speaker encounter?
   
3. What decision does the speaker have to make in the poem?
   
4. Infer the season. How do you know?
   
5. Describe the conflict the speaker feels.
   
6. Explain why the reader doubts he’ll ever come back to travel the first road.
   
7. Analyze the last stanza. What does the speaker mean by ―Somewhere ages and ages hence”?
   
8. Formulate an idea of what you think the road may represent. Explain why you think that.
   
9. Propose a reason for the ―sigh” the speaker has at the end of the poem. What are some of the reasons he may be sighing? Explain your answer.
   
10. Propose a meaning for the line ―that has made all the difference.‖ What are some of other meanings of that line?
    
11. Which interpretation do you prefer? Why?