Collected Poems of Robert Frost

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Questions for Discussion

1. The poet writes, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both.” What does the word diverged mean?

A) appeared

B) curved

C) branched off

D) continued on

2. The poet writes, “And both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black.” What is the meaning of the word trodden?

A) mowed recently

B) replanted with seed

C) stepped on or over

D) watered and made muddy

3. In “The Road Not Taken,” which of the two roads appears “less traveled” to the speaker?

A) The one he takes

B) The one he does not take

C) Neither of the two

4. When first discovering two diverging roads in “The Road Not Taken,” the speaker is immediately sorry not to

A) be able to travel both.

B) have access to a map.

C) be better at decision-making.

D) have the benefit of hindsight.

E) have more time to choose.

5. When the speaker in “The Road Not Taken” realizes he can only travel one road, how does he make his choice?

A) He chooses the second road, telling himself he can travel the first another day, even as he knows this is probably not true.

B) He chooses the more traveled road, realizing that it will allow him better access to the many dreams he has for his life.

C) He notices other travelers have worn down the roads until they are about the same, and knows his choice doesn’t really matter.

D) He determines which road lets him see farthest ahead and chooses that one, knowing it will give him greater foresight.

E) He knows that by choosing one road, he will never travel the other, so he chooses the less-traveled in order to have an adventure.

6. What conclusion can the reader draw about the speaker in the first stanza?

A) He is lonely and sad.

B) He is hesitant and thoughtful.

C) He is hurried and rushed.

D) He is kind and generous.

7. Which feature of the selection most strongly indicates that it is a poem?

A) It appeals to the senses.

B) It is divided into lines and stanzas.

C) It has a title.

D) It is told in first person.

8. What could the two roads symbolize?

A) They could symbolize different ways out of the woods.

B) They could symbolize different ways to return home.

C) They could symbolize different ways to get to town.

D) They could symbolize different choices in life.

9. Which statement best describes the speaker of "The Road Not Taken"?

A) He makes decisions quickly without much thought.

B) He takes the time to think carefully before making a decision.

C) He makes decisions based on what others choose.

D) He doesn't think a particular decision has much effect on one's life.

10. What phrase in the poem tell us that the speaker would prefer not having to make a decision between two choices because he wanted to experience both of them?

A) "And sorry I could not travel both, And be one traveler;"

B) "And both that morning equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black."

C) "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by"

D) "Yet knowing how way leads on to way, / I doubted if I should ever come back."

11. What does "grassy and wanted wear," (line 8) mean?

A) Many people had walked the grassy path.

B) The grass needed cutting.

C) The grass was too high for anyone to walk through it.

D) Not many people had walked this path.

12. Robert Frost called “The Road Not Taken” “a trick poem—very tricky.” Which of the following statements does not illustrate the poem’s trickiness?

A) The speaker can only take one path, so there is no way for him to know if his final choice did indeed make “all the difference.”

B) At the end, the speaker honors the path “less traveled by,” even though he says earlier that the paths are worn “really about the same.”

C) The speaker says each road is equally filled with leaves that “no step had trodden black.”

D) The speaker says one path is “just as fair” as the other, but this path has “a better claim” because it is “grassy and want[s] wear.”

E) The speaker realizes he may know “ages and ages hence” if he has made the right choice, but he has no way of knowing now.

Mending Wall [1914]

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun,

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it

Where there are cows?

But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,

But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me~

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Questions for Discussion

1. The narrator of the poem says there is something that does not love:

A) a wall

B) wrestling

C) patterns of stars in the night sky

D) the look of women whose dressing is not too exact

E) a desk that contains stacks rather than neatly arranged files

2. The activity that brings the narrator and his neighbor together once a year is:

A) a trip to Madagascar

B) picking apples together

C) gossiping about their neighbors

D) mending the rock wall that separates their property

E) gathering pine cones that have fallen from one’s property to the other’s

3. The narrator suggests that his neighbor believes fences are good because:

A) he owns a fencing company

B) rocks won’t dent a suit of armor

C) the neighbor’s father had thought so, too

D) rocks give a feeling of solid relationships

E) in his dim-witted way he had not progressed beyond the savage level

4. The narrator believes fences are for:

A) cows

B) birds

C) humans

D) ice cream

E) pine cones

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening [1923]

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.

Questions for Discussion

1, The "woods" and darkness suggests which of the following?

A) the end of the day

B) death

C) the necessity to hurry and push ahead

D) rebirth

2. Why does the speaker repeat the line, "And miles to go before I sleep?"

A) to emphasize that it is not yet time for him to die

B) to reiterate that he is in a hurry to leave the woods

C) to clarify his attitude about dying

D) to signify his fear of the woods

3. Who is the implied owner of the woods to whom the speaker refers in lines 1-2?

A) a farmer he knows

B) his neighbor whose name is not mentioned in the poem

C) God

D) someone with whom he is vaguely familiar

1. B

2. A

3. C

Fire and Ice [1920 ]

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Considering the Poem

1. In the poem, what does fire represent, and what does ice represent?

2. How are fire and ice--and the things fire and ice represent--similar, and how are they different?

3. In a sentence or two, tell what point Frost is making?

4. Why is desire like fire, and why is hate like ice?

5. How can desire and hate end the world?

6. In “Fire and Ice,” the speaker contemplates whether the world will end in fire or ice; which wins out in his conclusion?

A) Fire

B) Ice

7. In the second part of “Fire and Ice,” the speaker contemplates whether it would be preferable to die by fire, or by ice. Which does he conclude is the better death?

A) Fire

B) Ice

Fireflies in the Garden [1928]

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,

And here on earth come emulating flies,

That though they never equal stars in size,

(And they were never really stars at heart)

Achieve at times a very star-like start.

Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.

Questions for Discussion

1. In line 2, the word emulating means the speaker believes the fireflies are

A) imitating the stars

B) entering the skies

C) making soft sounds

2. In lines 3 and 4, the poet most likely uses the words never and never really in order to

A) make the lines of the poem equal in length

B) stress the inability of fireflies to shine like stars

C) describe the unimportance of fireflies in the cycle of nature

3. According to the poem, which of these statements BEST explains a difference between fireflies and stars?

A) The stars look motionless.

B) Stars are older than fireflies.

C) The light in fireflies is temporary

The Armful [1928]

For every parcel I stoop down to seize

I lose some other off my arms and knees,

And the whole pile is slipping, bottles, buns,

Extremes too hard to comprehend at once

Yet nothing I should care to leave behind.

With all I have to hold with hand and mind

And heart, if need be, I will do my best.

To keep their building balanced at my breast.

I crouch down to prevent them as they fall;

Then sit down in the middle of them all.

I had to drop the armful in the road

And try to stack them in a better load.

1. The speaker in the poem most likely feels that sometimes challenges and responsibilities

A) should be abandoned

B) require a new approach

C) offer too many possibilities

D) are negative influences in life

2. Which word best describes the speaker’s tone in the poem?

A) apologetic

B) determined

C) humorous

D) suspenseful

3. The poem “The Armful” mostly develops the theme of

A) trying to manage the demands of life

B) facing disappointment without bitterness

C) remaining enthusiastic while pursuing goals

D) learning to accept responsibility for mistakes

1. B

2. A

3. B

The Wood-Pile [1914]

Out walking in the frozen swamp one grey day

I paused and said, "I will turn back from here.

No, I will go on farther--and we shall see."

The hard snow held me, save where now and then

One foot went down. The view was all in Straight up and down of tall slim trees

Too much alike to mark or name a place by

So as to say for certain I was here

Or somewhere else: I was just far from home.

A small bird flew before me. He was careful

To put a tree between us when he lighted,

And say no word to tell me who he was

Who was so foolish as to think what he thought.

He thought that I was after him for a feather--

The white one in his tail; like one who takes

Everything said as personal to himself.

One flight out sideways would have undeceived him.

And then there was a pile of wood for which

I forgot him and let his little fear

Carry him off the way I might have gone,

Without so much as wishing him good-night.

He went behind it to make his last stand.

It was a cord of maple, cut and split

And piled--and measured, four by four by eight.

And not another like it could I see.

No runner tracks in this year's snow looped near it.

And it was older sure than this year's cutting,

Or even last year's or the year's before.

The wood was grey and the bark warping off it

And the pile somewhat sunken. Clematis

Had wound strings round and round it like a bundle.

What held it though on one side was a tree

Still growing, and on one a stake and prop,

These latter about to fall. I thought that only

Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks

Could so forget his handiwork on which

He spent himself, the labour of his axe,

And leave it there far from a useful fireplace

To warm the frozen swamp as best it could

With the slow smokeless burning of decay.

Questions for Discussion

1. In “The Wood-Pile,” the woodpile in question “warms the frozen swamp” with “the slow smokeless burning of...

A) dry moss.”

B) decay.”

C) a greenhouse.”

D) neglect.”

2. In “The Wood-Pile,” the speaker decides to continue walking in the woods. What animal does he then see?

A) A bird

B) A fox

C) A deer

D) A gnat

3. In line 35, when the poet mentions “Someone who lived in turning to fresh tasks,” he is referring to a person who

A) likes things to be organized.

B) rarely completes his projects.

C) dislikes hard work.

D) feels at home in the outdoors

4. What is ironic about the winter setting of the poem?

A) Animals cannot make use of the wood because they are hibernating.

B) The wood could be keeping someone warm, but instead it is rotting in the swamp.

C) The speaker would not have noticed the wood-pile if the trees had not been bare.

D) The person who cut the wood wanted to come back to it, but the snow hid his tracks.

5. One feature of this poem that classifies it as modern American poetry, rather than poetry of the Colonial period, is that

A) it is not strongly moralistic or religious.

B) it has only one main character.

C) it provides a description of nature.

D) it lends itself to various interpretations.

6. Robert Frost wrote and published from 1894 until his death in 1963. What literary trend of Frost’s era can be found in this poem?

A) focus on everyday things

B) intricate rhyme schemes

C) instances of dialogue

D) dramatic ending

1. B; 2. A; 3. B; 4. B; 5. A; 6. A

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