Basic Understanding Where is the speaker located in the first 3 stanzas? Can you tell what time of year it is? 2. What do the words” yellow wood” mean? The speaker is in a wood. He is standing at a point in the road that is about to split into two separate paths. The leaves on the trees are yellow, from this we can infer that it is autumn/fall now. This means that the leaves on the trees are yellow and about to fall, meaning the season is autumn/fall.

3. What dilemma does the speaker have, and how does he feel 3. What dilemma does the speaker have, and how does he feel? Quote a line from the poem to support your answer. 4. Did the speaker come to a quick decision? Support your answer with a quotation. The speaker can’t see where the two roads lead, and he doesn’t know which one to take. He is sorry he can’t travel on both roads. No, he says “long I stood”-it took him time to make his decision.

5. What does this mean: “I could not travel both and be one traveler”? 6. Can the narrator travel along the road not taken? Does he think he will? Explain why? It means that one person cannot travel the tow different roads at the same time. The person has to decide which way to go and to travel that road. He can travel that road if he goes back again on another day or at another time. However, he doesn’t think he will. Since one road leads to another, people usually don’t go back to the place they started from, but continue on thir way, on and on.

7. How could the narrator tell that no one had walked on the roads recently? They were grassy, the grass was upright. This means no one stepped on the road and flattened the grass. They were also covered with yellow leaves that had no mud on them, because no one had stepped on them(trodden black).

Analysis and Interpretation

Metaphor A metaphor describes something using other words or images.

The classroom was a zoo. a b

Their home was a prison. a b

My teacher is a dragon. a b

making choices /making decisions the options we can choose in our life Complete the following sentences: The traveler’s journey is a metaphor for______________ b. The crossroads in the poem is a metaphor for__________ c. The paths are compared to_________________________. life making choices /making decisions the options we can choose in our life

Answer the following questions: Why doesn’t the speaker think he will ever have a chance to walk the other road? What does this tell us about his decision? 2. How does the speaker feel when he makes his choice? How do we know it? Because he says that “way leads on to way”, and he doubts that he will ever come back to the same “fork” in the road. We can understand that with decisions, one decision leads to another, and therefore we cannot go back to the past and be able to have the same choice again. The speaker is uncertain about the choice he is making. We know this because he stand and looks at the roads for a long time. Also he repeats the word “I” which may show uncertainty. He is sure that whichever choice he makes will have effect on his life.

The speaker doesn’t yet know how his choice has affected his life The speaker doesn’t yet know how his choice has affected his life. He says he “shall be telling this with sigh/somewhere ages and ages hence.” How does the speaker think he will feel about the choice he made? 4. Why do you think the writer called the poem “The Road Not Taken” instead of “The Road Taken”? The speaker may feel relief or regret because he knows his decision has made all the difference to his life(positively or negatively). The poet is thinking about the road he didn’t take. He will always regret not knowing what he missed. The road NOT taken-by most people.

Uncovering Motives

Activity Understanding the underlying reasons for a person’s behavior.   Understanding the underlying reasons for a person’s behavior. Activity Police are investigating the murder of Jack Smith, 55, the wealthy co-owner of a successful start-up company The following people are suspects. What motive might each of them have had for murdering Jack Smith?

1. Amanda Smith, Jack’s 35-year-old wife: ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 2. Arthur Smith, Jack’s twin brother: ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3. Ben Jones, an employee in Jack’s start-up company: .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 4. Laura Kent, owner of a rival start-up company: ............................................................................................................................................................ ................................................................................................................................

In the poem The Road Not Taken what is the speaker’s motive for choosing one way over the other? 6. What kind of person do you think the speaker is? (for example, conventional, unconventional, spontaneous, deep thinking, boring, adventurous) The speaker chooses the road that is “grassy and wanted wear”. He wanted to choose the road that fewer people had traveled on. The speaker is an adventurous and unconventional person because he chooses the less conventional way-the road fewer people have traveled on. He is a person who thinks deeply about the decisions he makes.