The second verse compares the two roads without knowing what the other contains. He wanted to know what laid down the other road and compares the path he travelled to the one he could have travelled.
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.
The first line means that he has decided to take a journey on one of the roads he was pondering about. It also means that he could have just as easily taken the road he did not take. In the second line it means that he thought the road he took would be more interesting than the other, “ and having perhaps the better claim” because it “was grassy and needed wear”, which means that lesser people had been on that path than the other. When a path has not been trodden on, it leaves plants and grass to overgrow. So he took the road which was grassy because it was unusual compared to the other path. He also thought that the path needed people to take it! (needed wear) On the last two line of that verse,
(Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.),
he almost contradicts himself. I do not fully understand this part because in the previous lines he says that less people had travelled the path and then later he says they have been travelled the same! I think what it means is that, the same number of people have been on both paths, but the overgrown path seems more interesting to hime. Other people could have seen the other path as more interesting so his view on the different paths is entirely up to opinion so he may have thought his path was interesting so it looks more adventurous. Other people however, may think that his path is boring and the other path exciting, therefore seeing their path as overgrown!
The third verse is about how he could retrace his steps but he secretly knows within him, that there is no real chance of him ever returning to choose a different path.
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
The first two lines mentions that he has not made a bad decision (no step had trodden black) to go on the road he took or he has not made any mistakes. He has continued his unpredictable journey and he has not turned back and walked over the same leaves twice to make them black. At the end of the third line there is an exclamation mark which means he is almost sarcastically joking that he could gone back and taken the other road. He laughs at the thought of retracing all those decisions and steps to go back to one final spot. In the third and fourth lines it confirms this. He says that because of all the complexities during his journey (ways lead onto ways), he doubted if it was actually possible to walk back! He wishes he could have travelled both roads though, but each tiny little decision like “shall I walk right or left” could influence the rest of your life in maybe a hugely reactive way!
The last verse is about him reflecting on the decisions ha had made in life and his opinion to what had happened.
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 travelled by,
And that has made all the difference
In this verse he is looking into the future (again!) and wondering what he will be saying. (somewhere ages and ages hence) He does not really want to talk about how he made his decisions (sigh) and he starts repeating the beginning of his poem. At the end of the third line however, he starts the second verse and says I--. It is like he has changed his mind about the fourth line and he then starts saying he took the road that less people travelled on. He then goes on to say that by choosing one road, it has affected his whole life in a dramatic way (and that has made all the difference)
I think that the moral of this poem is that you have to choose what you do very carefully because even the tiniest decision can change your life in an unbelievable way!
I really enjoyed this poem because it relates to life in such a surreal way. Your journey through life is represented as roads within a wood and your decisions that evolve from your journey are represented by your surrounding!
In the poem, “Nothing gold can stay”, seasons are represented in different ways to normal. It is about Spring and how Mother Nature keeps hold of it!
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.
The first line “Nature’s first green is gold” means that the first signs of greenness is gold, meaning that spring is gold. The word “Gold” could mean good or beautiful. Gold is a precious material, so Robert Frost could be saying that spring is valuable. He uses colours to represent seasons and he never once mentions within the poem any names of flowers, seasons or days.
The second line, “Her hardest hue to hold”, is saying that Spring (from the first line) does not last. Mother nature must let go of it from her “hold”, and the word “hue” sometimes represents a type of colour, so maybe the second line could translate to “Her hardest colour (green) to hold”. I have noticed that Robert Frost uses the term “her”. This probably relates to Mother Nature! It is her hardest season to keep alive.
The third line means that the beginning of spring is beautiful. Flowers are generally classed as pretty or beautiful. It is like saying that the beginning of spring is like a flower. Also, flowers start growing in spring so he could be referring to that also! He says her early leaf is a flower. I think this means that even the leaves in Spring are beautiful.
The fourth line is of a more negative stature! It is saying that this beautiful, wondrous thing cannot last (but only so an hour) and must, one day, finish. All good things must come to an end!
In the second verse it starts the story of spring finishing. It says that this will not last and all things good must come to an end.
In the first line (then leaf subsides to leaf), it refers to Spring slowly dying. It is a gradual process as the leaves begin to droop and subside. The leaves slowly start dying and turning into less beautiful objects. It is the beginning o the end of spring!
In the second line, “So Eden sank to grief”, it means that the whole of spring is dying. Spring is sinking and grief resembles the sadness of it disappearing. Eden is the season which is sinking. It is like the season does not want to die, because it feels grief as it falls.
The third line is right at the end of the season and the start of the new season. “so dawn goes down to day”. It is the end one day (or season) and the beginning of another day (or season!) It also shows that time is involved with the changing of seasons. The change does not all happen at once.
The fourth and final line of the poem, “Nothing gold can stay” is saying that nothing beautiful lasts. I personally agree with this statement as it applies to all things in today’s modern society. Nothing good will ever last. We will all die one day and anything good we did have will be gone.
I really enjoyed studying these poems because they all related to life and how life works. They have a similar style and at first I did not have a clue what was being told. Once you look at the poems in more depth though, you can see the points they are trying to get across. I would not recommend these poems to anyone though, because people might find them boring as I did from the beginning.
Putting both poems side by side, I can say that I enjoyed studying “Nothing gold can stay” more than the other because I understood the issues more clearly and I liked the way Robert Frost put the seasons into a poem.
