Reading Strategies - Poetry

Reading Poetry Effectively

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Six Reading Strategies to Use When Reading Poetry

Read the Title

​Chunk it so that you can understand line by line, stanza by stanza

Read the Poem More Than Once

​Understand the context that a word is being used in.

Look Up Unfamiliar Words

​Six Reading Strategies

​​​The title suggests a choice between two roads, which is likely a metaphor related to the theme that will be developed in the poem.

Identify the Theme

Identify metaphors, imagery, repetition, tone, and personification

Analyze the Language

​Six Reading Strategies

Identify the Speaker and Setting

​The title of the poem "The Road Not Taken" and the last stanza are connected because they both emphasize the importance of making choices and taking risks. The speaker made a choice to take a less traveled road, which was challenging and uncertain, but it ultimately led to where he is now. The title reminds us that there are always choices to be made, and these choices can have a big impact on our lives.

Multiple Choice

What is the effect of Frost's use of the phrase "long I stood" in the first stanza of the poem?

• It creates a sense of urgency in the speaker's decision-making.

• It emphasizes the speaker's indecision and hesitation.

• It suggests that the speaker is lost and unsure of his surroundings.

• It establishes the beauty and peacefulness of the woods.

Multiple Choice

What is the significance of the poem's final line, "And that has made all the difference"?

• It suggests that the speaker's choice was insignificant and had no impact on his life.

• It emphasizes the importance of taking risks and making unconventional choices.

• It implies that the speaker wishes he had chosen the other path.

• It establishes a sense of ambivalence in the speaker's thinking.

Multiple Choice

How does the theme of individualism relate to the speaker's decision in "The Road Not Taken"?

• The speaker chooses the road less traveled because he wants to be different from others.

• The speaker chooses the road less traveled because he wants to follow the crowd.

• The speaker chooses the road less traveled because he is afraid of being different.

• The speaker chooses the road less traveled because he wants to challenge himself.

Multiple Choice

Using evidence from the poem, evaluate the speaker's decision to take the road less traveled. Which of the following statements best summarizes the speaker's view of his decision?

• He regrets taking the road less traveled and wishes he had taken the other path.

• He believes that taking the road less traveled was the right decision, despite its challenges.

• He thinks that both paths were equally appealing and he could have been happy on either one.

• He is unsure about whether taking the road less traveled was the right decision.

Multiple Choice

Analyze the figurative language used in the poem to describe the two paths. Which of the following statements best describes the speaker's attitude toward the two paths?

• He sees the two paths as equally uninviting and undesirable.

• He believes that one path is clearly better than the other and regrets not taking it.

• He sees both paths as having potential and recognizes the difficulty in choosing between them.

• He believes that the two paths are essentially the same and have no real differences.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following answer choices correctly explains the connection between the title of the poem and the final stanza?

• The title refers to the speaker's decision to take the road less traveled, which is ultimately what made all the difference.

• The title reflects the speaker's regret about not taking the other path, which is described in the final stanza as being "just as fair."

• The title emphasizes the theme of making choices, which is echoed in the final stanza's reference to "ages and ages hence."

• The title suggests that the poem is ultimately about the journey rather than the destination, which is the focus of the final stanza.