

He examines the path as best he can, but his vision is limited because the path bends and is covered over. A 1958 interview with Robert Frost is available from Zenger Video.

Robert Frost, a videocassette from volume 3 of the Voices and Visions Series, is available from Mystic Fire Video.A video titled Robert Frost, part of the Poetry America Series, is available through AIMS Media.An audio record titled “ Robert Frost Reads the Poems of Robert Frost” was released in 1957 by Decca.Yet, the choice is not easy, since “long I stood” before coming to a decision. Here the speaker expresses his regret at his human limitations, that he must make a choice. In this line Frost introduces the elements of his primary metaphor, the diverging roads. Poem Text Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,Īnd be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I couldĪnd that has made all the difference. His final three collections received less enthusiastic reviews, yet contain several pieces acknowledged as among his greatest achievements. Though he received great popular acclaim, his critical reputation waned during the latter part of his career. Kennedy in 1961 and represented the United States on several official missions. He recited his work at the inauguration of President John F. Frost continued to write prolifically over the years and received numerous literary awards as well as honors from the United States government and American universities. The American editions of Frost’s first two volumes won critical acclaim upon publication in the United States, and in 1917 Frost began his affiliations with several American universities as a professor of literature and poet-in-residence. This volume contains several of his most frequently anthologized pieces, including “Mending Wall,” “The Death of the Hired Man,” and “After Apple-Picking.” Shortly after North of Boston was published in Great Britain, the Frost family returned to the United States, settling in Franconia, New Hampshire.


Following the success of the book, Frost relocated to Gloucestershire, England, and directed publication of a second collection, North of Boston (1914). Frost soon published his first book of poetry, A Boy’s Will (1913), which received appreciative reviews. During this time, he met such literary figures as Ezra Pound, an American expatriate poet and champion of innovative literary approaches, and Edward Thomas, a young English poet associated with the Georgian poetry movement then popular in Great Britain. In 1912, having been unable to interest American publishers in his poems, Frost moved his family to a farm in Buckinghamshire, England, where he wrote prolifically, attempting to perfect his distinct poetic voice. Three years later the Frosts’ eldest child died, an event which led to marital discord and which, some critics believe, Frost later addressed in his poem “Home Burial.” In 1897, Frost entered Harvard University as a special student, but left before completing degree requirements because of a bout with tuberculosis and the birth of his second child. He published a chapbook of poems at his own expense, and contributed the poem “The Birds Do Thus” to the Independent, a New York magazine. After graduation, Frost briefly attended Dartmouth College, taught at grammar schools, worked at a mill, and served as a newspaper reporter. In 1892, Frost graduated from Lawrence High School and shared valedictorian honors with Elinor White, whom he married three years later. He imagines himself in the future telling the story of his life and claiming that his decision to take the road “less traveled by,” the road few other people have taken, “has made all the difference.” Author Biographyīorn in San Francisco, Frost was eleven years old when his father died, and his family relocated to Lawrence, Massachusetts, where his paternal grandparents lived. He does make a decision, hoping that he may be able to visit this place again, yet realizing that such an opportunity is unlikely. Although the paths look equally attractive, the speaker knows that his choice at this moment may have a significant influence on his future. The speaker of the poem must choose one path instead of another. The poem relies on a metaphor in which the journey through life is compared to a journey on a road. Like many of Frost’s poems, “The Road Not Taken” is set in a rural natural environment which encourages the speaker toward introspection. “The Road Not Taken,” first published in Mountain Interval in 1916, is one of Frost’s most well-known poems, and its concluding three lines may be his most famous.
