THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Summary
The poet, while traveling on foot in the woods, comes across a junction where his path diverges into two
roads, and he has to choose one of them. Now the poet is in a dilemma about which road he should take to
continue his journey. He stands there for a long time looking at one of the roads. He finds this road as a
beaten track. Many people had traveled on it. It was carved into the undergrowth and nothing was visible
beyond it.
The poet then looks at the other road which was grassy and seemed less travelled. Being adventurous by
nature, he chooses the other road and leaves the first one for some other day, knowing fully well that he will
not get a chance to go back to it. The poet feels that this choice will make all the difference to his future life.
Later the poet wishes that he had taken the road he left. This is the irony of life. We cannot go through all the
roads available to us, no matter whosoever we may wish to.
The poet now feels that after ages from now he would be looking back at this decision with a ‘sigh’. He would
be telling that since he had taken the less traveled road, it made all the difference in his life.
Thus, the poet talks about one of the basic problems of human life the problem of making the right choice out
of many. We come across many alternatives or choices in life. But we cannot take up all the choices at a time.
Neither can we alter the decision once made by us. Therefore, it is important to make the right choice because
our future is heavily dependent on it. If we fail to make the right decision, our life would be full of misery. But
if we are fortunate enough to make the right choice, we would be successful.
Reference to Context
1) “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry, I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long
I stood And looked down one as far I could;
To where it bent in the undergrowth,”
(a) What did the narrator see in the wood?
Answer:
The narrator saw two paths diverging in the forest.
(b) Why did the poet stand there for “long”?
Answer:
The poet stood there for long because he could not make up his mind which path to take.
(c) The poet here is using “roads” as symbols of:
Answer:
The choices one makes in life.
2) “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,”
(a) What does “other” refer to in the above lines?
Answer:
In the above lines, “other” refers to the road that was grassy and less traveled upon.
(b) Which road did the narrator choose?
Answer:
The narrator chose the one that was grassy and less traveled upon.
(c) Explain “grassy and wanted wear”?
Answer:
The road was covered with grass as not many people had walked this road so it was more inviting.
3) 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.”
(a) What does “both” refer to?
Answer:
In the given lines “both” refers to the two roads that forked out in different directions.
(b) Explain the line “In leaves no step had trodden back”.
Answer:
The given line means a path not commonly used so the dried leaves that lay on the ground and had not been
trampled upon.
(c) What made the narrator doubt whether he “should ever come back”?
Answer:
The fact that one road generally leads to another made the narrator doubt that he should ever come back.
Short Answers
1) Where does the traveler find himself? What problem does he face?
Ans- The traveler finds himself in the yellow Woods at a point where the road forks into the forest he is unable
to decide which road to take to continue his journey since it is not possible to take both the roads at the same
time.
2) Explain “grassy and wanted wear”?
Ans- He picked the one that was “grassy and wanted wear”. It means that the path he selected was covered in
grass and had never been walked before.
3) As a symbol, what does ‘road’ signify in the poem?
Ans- The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is a poem narrated by a lone traveler confronted with two roads,
symbolizing the journey of life and the decisions we make on that journey.
Long answers
1) What do you think the last two lines of the poem mean?
Ans- The poet says he made a decision to take the challenging path and stood by his decision and has accepted
the reality of his life in the last lines when he says, I took the road less taken and that has made all the
differences means that his choice is to be different was the cause of his life-changing for the good or for the
bad. He has only said that it made a difference and not specified the nature of the difference whether good or
bad. Therefore, he could either be regretting or he could be rejoicing the decision he had taken and the
choices he had made in life.
2) What is the message of the poem?
Ans-The message of the poem is to make people aware of their analytical skills. The poet wishes to say that
choices should be made carefully and thoughtfully. One should behave responsibly because life does not offer
multiple chances every now and then.
3) According to the poem, how does the poet feel about his or her decision in the end?
Ans-
The speaker of this poem is Robert Frost himself. He is thinking about a career decision he made many years
ago. He had to make a choice between seeking a secure profession that would enable him to live in comfort or
devoting him to poetry and living a simple life close to nature. Same as the poet, many of us don’t know
whether to trust our instincts and go ahead with the pursuit of our dreams. Frost chose to devote his life to his
poetry. The poet does not appear to regret the choice he made, but he sounds wistful in the last as if he
wishes he knew what his alternate life would have been like if he had taken the other road.
