Question:
Can someone explain each line of this poem and the meaning of each line?
anonymous
1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Can someone explain each line of this poem and the meaning of each line?
Five answers:
Twili
2007-10-16 19:58:52 UTC
You could, if you just used your head... Think for yourself!
anonymous
2016-04-09 12:56:29 UTC
s
Tricia
2007-10-16 17:43:12 UTC
-in a forest, there are two paths to be taken

-he wishes he could travel both,

-but he could only travel one

-stared down one as far as he could see from the fork in the wood

-to where it turned and he couldn't see any further

-took the other, which looked just as nice

-maybe the better choice

-because the grass there wasn't worn- few had stepped there

-though in his taking that path

-both paths were now about equally traveled

-both had the same amount...

-... of leaves that had not been stepped on

-He decided to wait another day to take the other path

-Knowing how one path keeps leading to others

-he doubts if he ever returns to that original fork in the road

-he'll tell the story with a sigh

-sometime long after this

-the road split into two, and he-

-took the one that less people had taken

-and it has made quite a bit of difference



That's about as much as I can simplify it. I love that poem, by the way. There is a deeper meaning in it, of course- it's talking about choices in life, and how when each choice looks as fair as the other, the author took the one chosen by less people, and though he wonders what would've happened had he chosen the other, it seems to have turned out well all the same.
ZCT
2007-10-16 17:08:16 UTC
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,”



Some guy is in a wood, and the path splits in two.



“And sorry I could not travel both”



The guy can’t decide which way to go.



“And be one traveler, long I stood”



He stands around a while, deciding which path to take.



“And looked down one as far as I could”



Procrastinates some more.



“To where it bent in the undergrowth;”



He could only see a certain distance because of the foliage.



“Then took the other, as just as fair,”



The other path was equally interesting.



“And having perhaps the better claim,”



But the second of the two paths was slightly better looking.



“Because it was grassy and wanted wear;”



It looked less travelled and a shade more inviting.



“Though as for that the passing there



Had worn them really about the same,”



Blah blah blah.



“And both that morning equally lay”



Guy was such a loser he had to sleep on the problem.



“In leaves no step had trodden black.”



No one had stood in the leaves recently.



“Oh, I kept the first for another day!”



He still decides he likes the second of the two paths better.



“Yet knowing how way leads on to way,



I doubted if I should ever come back.”



He didn’t think he’d come back and make this tedious and

laborious decision again.



“I shall be telling this with a sigh”



The guy will be really boring company at a party, whining on about which path he chose. BLAH BLAH BLAH.



“Somewhere ages and ages hence:”



These paths he is blahing on about have been there for a

while.



“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-“



Poet tries to be clever by repeating the same crap all over again as if this somehow makes a conclusion.



“I took the one less traveled by,”



After some serious procrastination, he went down the path that fewer people had been down.



“And that has made all the difference.”



He is irritatingly smug about the decision.
mrm
2007-10-16 17:01:41 UTC
Robert Frost. This is a lovely poem, and also fairly accessible. It's all about choice. The speaker chooses the path "less travelled", while keeping the other for "another day" (ie in his back pocket, maybe---although one gets the sense that the speaker is going to stick with his choice).



In other words, the speaker elects the "hard" choice, while regretting that "one traveller" couldn't have both options. Again, though, one gets the sense that the speaker will thrive, notwithstanding (maybe even BECAUSE OF) his choice.



Does that help? Anyone who knows this poem, could go on and on.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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