Page 9 - Point 5 Literature Program Option 1 Teachers Guide (2) (1)

It is not hard to understand the poem as a metaphor. The traveler’s journey represents life itself
and the crossroads in the wood represents one of the innumerable decisions we have to make.
The fact that this crossroads is in a wood is an example of how, sometimes, we have to make a
decision without really being able to see clearly where that decision will lead us.
The last three lines of the third stanza also remind us of the reality that one decision leads
us to another, and that it is rare that we can backtrack and really put ourselves at exactly the
same turning point again.

Working Through the Unit
Pre-Reading Activity

ask students to read the questions and elicit their suggestions orally. For question 3, elicit the notion
of trying to see which road is more ‘interesting’. The term metaphor is explained before question 2
in the analysis and Interpretation section, but you may choose to relate to it here if appropriate to
the discussion.

Basic Understanding
This section offers a key Vocabulary list, followed by Vocabulary Practice. Questions test the
students’ comprehension of the literal meaning of the poem.

Key Vocabulary
Students may refer to the key Vocabulary list when they do the Vocabulary Practice exercise.

Vocabulary Practice
Answers:
1. c 2. d 3. a 4. b
Questions
Answers might include:
Stanza I

1. The traveler is in a wood. Students should write the words yellow wood. The season is the fall.
2. The road bends and is covered in undergrowth.
3. The traveler regrets that he cannot take both roads.
Stanza II
4. The traveler chooses the road he thinks is less traveled.
5. The word that refers to how grassy and untraveled the second road looks at first to the traveler.
6. Both roads are attractive and appealing (fair). He looks again and realizes that both roads are more or less equally
worn by the feet of other travelers.
Stanza III
7. Both roads are covered with freshly fallen leaves, meaning that no one else had traveled either road that day.
8. The traveler decided to take the second road but also to return to take the first one on another day.
9. He realizes that it is not likely that he will have the chance to come back in the future and explore the other path.
Stanza IV

10. Yes. The traveler says And that has made all the difference, which means that he expected his choice of road to
have an important impact on his life and his future.
11. a. line 1 c. line 20 e. line 19 g. lines 14,15
b. line 16 d. lines 10, 11 f. lines 4, 5

The road noT Taken 9