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.

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION:-          4 stanzas with 5 lines-          All lines are capitalized, no variation in length or indention-          ABAAB-          Iambic, 4 meters, some anapests

-          Strict form, narrative or lyrical poem- able to relate to the reader, reader becomes the narrator

-          Use of imagery and description to place the reader-          Rhyme scheme plays with idea of straight roads/paths-          Poem is about choice of paths in life and decisions

-          Use of capitalization in the first word

-          Very steady sound and use of words

-          Lot of punctuation at the end of lines very little enjambment

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?

And when thy heart began to beat,

What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?

In what furnace was thy brain?

What the anvil? what dread grasp

Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,

And water’d heaven with their tears,

Did he smile his work to see?

Did he who made the Lamb-make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Topics for discussion:· Trochaic tetrameter- lines of 7/8 syllables · End with masculine rhymes (except the first stanza…slant rhyme)· Strong and steady meter· Alliteration forces the harshness which matches the imagery· Endstops throughout the poem force questioning and inhibiting the flow· Repeated first and last stanzas· Imagery and allusions to satan and darkness· Symmetry- ends the first and last stanza which shows the actual symmetry