Robert Frost (1873-1963) was an American poet who wrote about life in New England in the early 1900s. Many of his most memorable poems are about nature. And, as if all of that is not enough to pique your interest, he won the Pulitzer Prize not one, but four times! Here’s a poem to read with your kids as they get ready for a new year filled with choices to be made. Let’s look at the entire poem, and then at each stanza.

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.

First Stanza

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;

Ask your child to describe the scene. What does it mean to be in a yellow wood – could it be the leaves are changing color in the fall? Why can’t one traveler walk on two roads at the same time when each heads in a different direction? Could he see to the end of either road, or do they curve? How does your child know all of these things from this stanza? Explain that this is what it means to come to a “fork in the road” – a decision point where you must make a choice.

Second Stanza

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.

What’s happening here? What does it mean that the roads “equally lay in leaves no step has trodden black”? Does it mean that neither path looks like it’s had more people walk down it? Why does that matter? And what does it mean that he kept going on the path he was on for another day? And, most importantly, what does it mean when Frost says, “yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back”? Explain how one decision often leads to the next and then the next and on and on, always moving forward.

Third Stanza

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.

Ask your child to put this stanza into their own words. Is the person sighing because he’s tired, happy, sad, or something else? Why is it ages and ages into the future? What does it mean that he took the road less traveled by? And how has that made all the difference?

Bottom Line

There are different stories about why Frost wrote this poem, but let’s treat it as a message to us from someone who is looking back at the choices they’ve made. He’s considering what that choice led to, and how he is now where he is, telling you with a sigh that the choice made all the difference. Now that we’ve “parsed” the meaning, ask your kids to tell you how they decide what to do when they’re forced to make a choice. Then read it again for pure enjoyment.