pructus  +  333626 Tue, 27 Feb 07 06:48 AM The Road Not Taken 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,   ***********************************   Hi! The poem by Robert Frost...   "having perhaps the better claim"   Does it mean that, the road has the better claim on me...? To mean that the road is tougher to go on? pructus Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004 Full Member 429

	Marius Hancu  +  333655 Tue, 27 Feb 07 10:07 AM Pls edit your posting, so it shows up in a normal manner. In order to avoid such accidents, use the Preview feature before posting. Also, I suggest you read his poem(s) with the help of: Poetry Study Guides http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/section7.rhtml Marius Hancu Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006 Veteran Member 11,673

	Grammar Geek  +  333995 Wed, 28 Feb 07 03:01 AM Pructus, I have edited it for you, but the spacing is still odd. You must have used copy and paste from something oddly formatted to start with. Yes, by being the road that more people had travelled before him, it had a better "claim" to be the better road - if more people choose it, shouldn't it be better? (Obviously not, but that's what that passage means.) EDITED: Sorry, I just reread it, and saw that it was the LESS-travelled road that he did take, the one with the better claim. But anyway, you're still right, it was the one that had the claim of being the better choice to take. Grammar Geek Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006 Veteran Member 19,683 Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random!

	julielai  +  334005 Wed, 28 Feb 07 03:19 AM I still remember my teacher "forcing" the poem on us back when we were fourteen.  We were pretty rowdy one day, so she walked out and told us to memorize this poem in 20 minutes. She came back later and made everyone stand up and recite bits of the poem for her. (Lucky she never called on me -- but I did learn that poem because of that incident.) julielai Joined on Sun, Oct 24 2004 Senior Member 3,829 Just another blogger (http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/julie-lai)