Picturing Robert Frost Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Pasture

Robert Frost's poems can be read at many levels. For this quiz, though, we'll stick with the most obvious interpretations.

"The Pasture" was the first poem in Frost's "North of Boston" collection of poems, published in 1914, which included some of his best-known works. "The Pasture" was idle musing by a farmer about what he wanted to do that day and said to a bystander (as Frost invited the reader): "I shan't be gone long -- you come too."

Answer: The Road Not Taken

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference." The narrator of the poem "The Road Not Taken" chose one of two roads, though they were about equally traveled, promising to take the other road on another day. Although he admitted he probably never would return to take the other road, he thought he might look back on the incident as though it were a life-changing decision.

Answer: The Death of the Hired Man

"The Death of the Hired Man" is a very sad poem. A former hand on a couple's farm had left some time ago but at the time of the poem, apparently knowing he was dying, returned because he had no other place to go. He died within hours of his return. The poem dealt with duty, hard work and keeping one's word.

Frost taught English at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and from 1921 to 1963 taught writing at Middlebury (Vermont) College's summer writing program at its Ripton campus. At both colleges, Frost encouraged his students to become familiar with the dialect and jargon of the residents of the areas they settled in. It is evident in this poem that he, a Californian, learned the lesson well himself.

Answer: The Tuft of Flowers

The need to work and what could be gained from it were themes in "The Tuft of Flowers". Someone had mowed a hayfield (by hand with a scythe in those days) and left a tuft of flowers he found attractive. The poem's narrator came through the field, saw the flowers, and agreed with leaving them to bloom, thereby forming a bond with the mower.

Answer: The Wood-Pile

While walking in a frozen swamp one winter's day, the narrator in "The Wood-Pile" walked farther than planned. Surprisingly, he came upon a cut and stacked cord of maple wood. With no homes around, he mused that it was left there "to warm the frozen swamp as best it could."

Answer: Christmas Trees

The farmer in Frost's "Christmas Trees" poem received a visit from a man from "the city" who wanted to buy a thousand of the farmer's Christmas trees for $30, or 3 cents apiece (this poem was written in 1920). The farmer, knowing how to negotiate ("Never show surprise!"), figured that 3 cents versus the dollar they would sell for in the city wasn't a good deal and wished he could instead put the trees in letters and send to friends.

Answer: In Neglect

"In Neglect" is a five line poem. There were two people in the poem: were they lovers? conspirators? You read and decide.

Answer: A Soldier

Frost used the metaphor of a dead soldier as a fallen lance in the poem "A Soldier". The soldier had done his duty and died in the process but his spirit had journeyed on.

Answer: In Hardwood Groves

In "In Hardwood Groves" Frost used dead and decaying leaves being pierced by new growth to represent the cycle of life and death. At the end of the poem, the narrator, though wishing otherwise, knew that people must go through the same cycle as plant life.

Answer: Mending Wall

"Mending Wall" is another poem from Frost's "North of Boston" collection. We would think that the narrator's neighbor was a slave to outmoded ideas, quoting his father in saying "Good fences make good neighbors" but it was the narrator who called the neighbor each Spring to arrange to walk their boundary and repair the stone wall. Perhaps good fences made good neighbors because the act of mending the wall gave them a common purpose.