DSC material _ Robert Frost poem - Part 3

Synonyms and Antonyms:

Diverge: To go or extend in different directions from a common point; branch out.(Antonyms : converge)

Wood: forest, thick presence of trees

Undergrowth: Low-growing plants, saplings, and shrubs beneath trees in a forest

Claim: ask, demand, ask for attention (Antonym: unclaimed, request, beg)

Wear: To carry or have on the person as covering, adornment, or protection

Worn: participle of wear

Trodden: a past participle of tread

Tread: To walk on, over, or along (Antonym : untrodden)

Sigh : lament, relief, relax, (Antonyms : curse, hard, work, will)

Ages and ages: long time, centuries ( Antonyms : short time, brief,

Hence : For this reason; therefore

Appreciation of the poem

It is Published in 1916 in the coolectionMountain Interval

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 to that, so therefore he continues to look down the roads for a long time trying to make his decision about which road to take.

Second Stanza

Speaker Decides to Take Less-Traveled Road

In the second stanza, he reports that he decided to take the other path, because it seemed to have less travelled than the first.

Yet he comments that actually they are similarly travelled and worn.

Both the ways are looked same, but not exactly same they were “really about the same.” but only “about the same.”

Third Stanza

Speaker continues with his description of raods.

The third stanza continues with the reflection about the possible differences between the two roads.
He had noticed that the leaves were fresh fallen on them, and  both and had not been walked on.
Abain he decides  that he would come back and use the first raod.
Doubt crept into his thoughts. because in life one thing leads to another and time is short.

Fourth Stanza

 It holds the Two Tricky Words

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 word here ‘difference’ is imparted with positive connotation.
But concrete evidence is not present in the poet about the positivity of the word ‘difference’.
Sigh denotes both regret and complacency (Satisfaction), relief.  With difference poet achieved complacency it is one side of argument.
If sigh is the positive one, speaker is happy for taking the less travelled road, or if sigh is regret it indicates unhappiness present in the speaker.
But the plain fact is that the poem does not identify the nature of that sigh.
The speaker of the poem does not even know the nature of that sigh, because that sigh and his evaluation of the difference his choice will make are still in the future.
 It is a truism that any choice an individual makes is going to make “all the difference” in how one's future turns out.
So Frost was absolutely correct; his poem is tricky—very tricky.
The following argument may sound an appropriate one:
Future accomplishments are not mentioned so the paradox ( a figure of speech ) is employed for drawing more than one interpretation.  Poet is waiting for the future outcome(?).
In a letter to Tennessee Williams ;
Frost replied, "It was my rather private jest at the expense of those who might think I would yet live to be sorry for the way I had taken in life."

Dear Student for more information you can also visit:

http://poetrypages.lemon8.nl/life/roadnottaken/roadnottaken.htm