Frost's Personal Context
When and where was Robert Frost born?
1874, San Francisco, California.
What major global event began in 1914 that influenced Frost's poetry?
World War I / The Great War
Provide a quote that demonstrates the poem's central extended metaphor
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" represents the choices in life we must make
What year was After Apple Picking published?
1914
What tragic real world event was this poem inspired by?
The death of boy Raymond Fitzgerald from an incident with a saw who was reported upon in a local newspaper in 1910.
What personal tragedy did Frost experience in his family in 1900 which he blamed himself for?
The death of his first son, Elliott.
Name one consequence of The Second Industrial Revolution which Frost explores in his poetry
- Poor working conditions ('Out, Out-' and After Apple Picking)
- The intrusion of labour on rest (After Apple Picking)
- Devalue of human life and worth as technology and labour output takes priority (After Apple Picking and Out, Out-)
- The loss of humanity and empathy in an increasingly industrialised world (Out, Out-)
There are several different ways that the tone of this poem could be described.
Name one type of tone and provide a quote to support your description.
1) Regretful tone "And sorry I could not travel both and be one traveller"
2) Ironic tone or ambiguous tone "I took the road less travelled by, and that has made all the difference" when the speaker earlier confessed the roads had both been "worn...about the same"
What technique is used in the opening lines, "My long two pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree / Toward heaven still" that establishes this poem's exploration of mortality?
Biblical allusion to Jacob's dream where he envisioned a ladder guiding his path to heaven, indicating that the speaker's reflecting on their own passing.
What is the poem's title an allusion to and why?
"Out, out brief candle" from Macbeth's soliloquy following the news of his wife's death, where he ponders the brevity of life and the meaninglessness of it.
Where did Frost and his family go in 1912 and why?
England, discouraged by American magazines' constant rejection of his poetry work.
How did Edward Thomas influence his poem "The Road Not Taken"?
Accept either answer:
1) Frost often remarked that the speaker in the poem was based on his friend, Edward Thomas, a person he considered very indecisive.
OR
2) He enlisted in WWI (chose this path) --> went on to die in battle in 1917 (after poem's composition).
Name four of the poem's form features
1) Narrative poem
2) Written in formal verse
3) Quintains
4) Loose iambic tetrameter
5) Alternating rhyme scheme ABAAB
6) Extended metaphor or allegory of "two roads diverg[ing]" representing the choices in life we must make
Name 3x specific themes that this poem explores. Be specific, for example in Road Not Taken:
- Decision-making <-- wrong.
- The difficult nature of decision-making <-- right.
1) The inevitability of mortality
2) The impermanence of life
3) Existential regret with unfinished achievements
4) The invasive nature and burden of labour
5) The limitations of our own abilities to achieve goals
Identify three themes that Frost explores in this poem
The fragility of life
The brevity of life
The value (or lack thereof) of human life
The decreasing worth of human life in an increasingly industrialised world
The loss of humanity and empathy in a mechanised world
The relationship between humanity and technology in the modern world
Where did Frost and his family go in 1915 AND name 2x facts about his move during this time.
Frost and his family returned to New England, USA (New Hampshire).
1) Returned as a celebrated and successful literary figure
2) Purchased a farm in New Hampshire whilst continuing to write.
How does Frost's bathetic ending in 'Out, Out-' reflect broader societal attitudes shaped by the Second Industrial Revolution?
The bathos at the end of the poem, wherein the onlookers resume their affairs, highlights the dehumanising effects of industrial progress, where even tragic loss of life is met with emotional detachment, reflecting a society increasingly focused on productivity over individual well-being.
Provide 3x examples that demonstrate how the speaker is plagued by indecision
3 examples of any of the below or others depending on students' explanation:
1) "And sorry I could not travel both / And be one traveler,"
2) "long i stood" - belaboured process of decision making
3) Because it was grassy and wanted wear - allusion to idiom "grass is greener on the other side"
4) "Oh, I kept the first for another day!"
5) "and I— / I took the one less traveled by," - epizeuxis of "I / I" - speaker is split into two, divided by the two different people he could have become depending on the choice he made
Name four of the poem's form features
1) Dramatic monologue
2) Pastoral poem (poem that idealise rural life)
3) Free verse
4) Stream of consciousness
5) Shifting tense
6) Extended metaphor of an apple picker as an allegory for aged individuals experiencing existential reflection
Name four of the poem's form and structural features
Narrative poem (more narrative prose qualities):
- One continuous stanza with a series of
enjambments and caesuras used
internally within lines ⟶ reads more
like a prose than a poem
- Conversational language; stripped of
elaborate metaphors and poetic
expressions
- Tension and suspense foreshadowed
- Direct speech
Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter)
Volta and Plot twist
Bathetic ending (anticlimax)
Name 5x facts about Frost's personal life/ experiences / family / context that may have influenced his exploration of life (existential), death (mortality), labour and loss.
1. Death of four out of six of his children before him OR his son Elliott dies and he blames himself 1900
2. Death of his father from tuberculosis in 1885
3. Frost's closest friend Edward Thomas dies in WWI 1917
4. Frost commits his sister, Jeanie to a mental institution 1920
5. Spent most of his life in New England, whilst living in America, developing an affinity for nature, the poetry of ordinary speech, the value of celebrating unremarkable events and people.
How does Frost's representation of life or mortality in "Out, Out-" and "After Apple Picking" reflect the anxieties of post-war society?
1) Identify what is his representation of life or mortality: the impermanence of life / the inevitability of mortality
2) reflects the existential uncertainty of a society grappling with the trauma of World War I His focus on fleeting moments, premature death, and the ambiguity of rest or sleep reflects a cultural shift toward questioning the meaning of life in an era marked by experiencing the devastating tragedy of mass loss.
Provide 3x examples that demonstrate how Frost explores in this poem our inability to make an objective assessment of our past decisions
Example 1) Audience are privy to the speaker’s contradictions throughout, as they oscillate between appraising the two paths as “about the same” and one “having perhaps the better claim”, reflective of how individuals often try to justify choices with self-deceit when they do not have control over knowing the true consequences of such decisions.
Evidence 2) The fairytale and grandiose language in the speaker’s final remarks that “I shall be telling this with a sigh/somewhere ages and ages hence” reveals how individuals romantice the significance of their past choices by crafting a self-narrative to remedy the discomfort of never knowing if they have chosen the correct path.
Evidence 3) This is emphasised in the ironic closing assertions, “I took the one less travelled by” and it “made all the difference”, which ultimately portrays how individuals, when plagued by indecision and regret resort to lying to themselves about the true impact of their past decisions.
Choose ONE of the key themes below and provide 4x quotes that demonstrate Frost's exploration of your chosen theme:
1) The inevitability of mortality
2) The impermanence of life
3) Existential regret with unfinished achievements
4) The invasive nature and burden of labour
5) The limitations of our own abilities to achieve goals
Variable answers. Teacher to award based on discretion of students' explanations
Choose ONE of the key themes below and provide 4x quotes that demonstrate Frost's exploration of your chosen theme:
The fragility of life
The brevity of life
The value (or lack thereof) of human life
The decreasing worth of human life in an increasingly industrialised world
The loss of humanity and empathy in a mechanised world
The relationship between humanity and technology in the modern world
Variable answers. Teacher to award based on discretion of students' explanations