Question

Assignment in progress for 1070 9813 Language Arts 8 B
Due February 22, 2026 at 11:59 PM
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
1916
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Robert Frost (1874-1963) was an American poet whose poems often depict rural scenes from the New England countryside. "The Road Not Taken" is one of Frost's most well-known poems.
As you read the poem, identify the imagery the speaker uses to describe the setting.

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.

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is in the public domain.


Unless otherwise noted, this content is licensed under theCC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

Notes
AllDefinitionsFootnotes
Diverge (verb) : to separate from another route or go in a different direction
a dense growth of shrubs and other plants, especially under trees in woodland
lacked
crushed, flattened, or walked upon

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Using evidence from the text, explain what the "roads" symbolize in this poem.



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Answer 1

The "roads" symbolize the choices and paths a person faces in life. The speaker says he is “sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler,” which shows that a choice must be made because you cannot take every path. He notes one road was “grassy and wanted wear” and later claims, “I took the one less traveled by,” showing he chose a less common or more individual option. The line “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence: … And that has made all the difference” shows that the choice affected the speaker’s life and how he will remember it. At the same time, Frost adds that the roads were “really about the same,” and “way leads on to way,” suggesting that choices can be ambiguous and lead to other decisions—once you pick one path, you usually cannot go back.