Read the poem below and answer the question that follows.
"the road not taken"
by robert frost
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.
source: frost, robert. "the road not taken." poets. org. academy of american poets, n. d. web. 4 apr. 2011.
how would a formal interpretation differ from a biographical interpretation of this poem? explain how you would interpret this poem from either theoretical point of view.

robert lee frost was born in march 26, 1874. he was an american poet. his work was initially published in england before it was published in america. better known for his realistic representations of rural life and his command of american colloquial speech, frost frequently wrote about settings from rural life in new england in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes.

"the road not taken" is a narrative poem. it flows naturally or conversationally, and begins as a kind of depiction of a quiet moment in the woods. it consists of four stanzas of 5 lines each. the variation of the rhythm gives naturalness, a feeling of thought occurring spontaneously, and it also affects the reader's sense of expectation.

it is one of frost's most popular works. some have said that it is one of his most misunderstood poems, claiming that it is not simply a poem that champions the idea of "following your own path", but that the poem, they suggest, expresses some irony regarding that idea.

1.- now, to answer this question, a formal interpretation from the poem has to consider specific aspects or components of the poem such as analysing:

    1.- the title

  2.- aspects of setting, of topic, of voice (the person who is speaking) seem to dominate, to direct your reading?

    3.-the ending of the poem -- decide where it 'gets to'

    4.- the organization of the poem, how the poem proceeds, and what elements or principles guide this organization (is there a reversal, a climax, a sequence of some kind, sets of oppositions? )

    5.-the tone of the poem -- in brief, its attitude to its subject, as that is revealed in intonation, nuance, the kind of words used, and so forth.

    6.- how the various elements of the poetry work to create its meaning. this may be as different as the kind of imagery used, or the way it uses oppositions, or the level of realism or symbolism of its use of the natural world.

2.- while from a biographical interpretation of the poem we do not pay too much attention to those details, but we normally try to see the author's experiences and live through them as we read the poem.

the servant does not kill the child oedipus as he was ordered to do because "he pitied the child" based on the oedipus rex story. the servant was ordered to kill the child because of the prophecy that predicted king laius' death. the king already had attempted to hurt oedipus by piercing oedipus's ankle. however, the servant did not finish the job and he rather saved the baby oedipus.

explanation:

op: object of preposition