00721--Paraphrase of the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

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Paraphrase of the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

Introduction

The poem was printed in ‘The Atlantic Monthly’ in August 1915, and was collected in ‘Mountain Interval’ (1916).  It is an important piece of poetry, as it explains the poet’s outlook of life. 

Stanza I

Two roads went in two different directions in a pale forest, and the poet felt sorry that he could not take both the roads, and couldn’t decide his path immediately as he was the only traveller.  For a long time he stood there and watched one of the roads as far as he could, to the farthest end where it took a curve toward the brushwood. 

Stanza II

The poet, now, examined the other road which was equally fair and clean, and which had perhaps a better claim since it was covered with grass and lacked foot-marks.  Both the roads were travelled by people but the second one was less travelled by. 

Stanza III

Both the roads that day looked fresh and untrodden because the leaves (it was autumn season) were not stepped on and not made black in colour.  The poet chose the second one and kept the first one reserved for some other day.  Nevertheless he knew that the way leads on to way, and thus a return is not possible. 

Stanza IV

The poet says that he will go on telling this incident with a sigh in the times to come that there met two roads at a point in a wood, and that he took the less travelled one, and this has made him a different individual altogether.   

The Road Not Taken

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.

                 END

00720--Paraphrase of the poem Dust of Snow by Robert Frost

Paraphrase of the poem Dust of Snow by Robert Frost

In this very small lyric, Frost combines nature and self-experience.  He tells us that how the dust of snow has given his heart a change of mood.  That dust of snow came from a Hemlock   tree, and it came to the poet in a way the crow shook down upon him.  The dust of snow has saved some part of his past, and belonged to a day when the poet had to rue. 

Here Frost narrates how even totally insignificant objects of nature, like dust of snow helps him and us to forget the unhappy memory of the past. 

The poem has two stanzas of 4 lines each.  The basic metre is iambic dia metre and the rhyme is ab, ab, cd, cd.  The lyric beautifully narrates the poetic feeling of joy and despair.  There is a poetic blending of different moods even in such a very small poem.   

Dust of Snow

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

00717--Nothing Gold Can Stay [ by Robert Frost]

Nothing Gold Can Stay        [ by Robert Frost]

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf,

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day,

Nothing gold can stay.

00525--Paraphrase/summary of the Poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

Paraphrase/summary of the Poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

Stanza 1.

The poet thinks that he knows whose woods these are.  He also knows that the owner of these woods is a man who lives in the village.  The forester, therefore, will not be able to see him stopping beside the woods to watch them being covered up in snow.   

Stanza 2.

The poet/speaker believes that his little horse must think it odd to stop in these woods without a farm house nearby between the woods and frozen lake on the darkest evening of the year. 

Stanza 3.

The horse gives a shake to the bells of his rein to know if the poet has stood there by some mistake.  The only other sound that is heard in the woods is that of the wind and snowfall.

Stanza 4.

The woods are beautiful, dark and deep to look at.  But the poet speaker has to keep his word given to others and therefore he has to go many miles to reach the destination before he retires to bed for sleep.  

00523--The Theme of the Poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

The Theme of the Poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost.

This short lyric of sixteen lines begins with a description of the deep woods through which, the speaker is passing on a dark, snowy evening.  The owner of the woods live away in the village, hence the owner won’t be able to see the speaker at his property.  A reference to the snow occurs.  The 2^nd and 3^rd stanzas are found speculative about the little horse who is not willing to stop beside the woods because no farm house is visible.  He shakes, therefore, his harness bell to know if the master has stopped because something has gone wrong.  The 4^th stanza is a beautiful sketch about the woods but the speaker is reminded of his promise to return home.  Thus he must continue his journey to cover up the miles.  Here the journey is life.  Woods are deviations from the goals of life.  

00257--Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

 Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

00256--The Road Not Taken------Robert Frost

 

The Road Not Taken

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.

                             

                                     Robert Frost