The Road Not Taken

Introduction

In the poem The Road Not Taken, the poet Robert Frost talks about the complications of life. He tells about an incident when he was traveling on a road and stops at a divergent. He was confused about which road he should choose. He compares roads with life and divergent paths with the point where we have to choose between two things. He compares this situation to real life

Summary

It is a well-versed poem written by Robert Frost. He shares an incident where he had to choose between two paths. Here he uses the road to symbolize life.

He describes how once while he was moving down the road and reached a place where the road diverged into two different roads. He stopped at this point and was confused about which path to choose because he couldn’t choose both. He compared this time of confusion to the dilemma that we face in real life while making decisions. To decide which path to choose, he examined both roads carefully to make a better choice.

After examining it for a while, he chose the one which looked less travelled. He leaves the other road assuming that he would travel it some other time. But somewhere in his heart, he knew that time would never come and he would never get the opportunity to travel on the other road. He referred to this road as the road not taken and compares this feeling to the one which we feel when we choose one thing over another and leave one thing behind

As he goes further on the chosen road, he feels that both the roads are similar and equally travelled. He also thinks that now his future would depend upon the road he chooses.

He wants us to understand how important each decision we make is. Every decision we make impacts our future. Even if we make wrong choices, we can’t go back and correct them. So, we should be very careful while making every choice.

Conclusion

The poet talks about our real life confusions. He tells us how he was going through a yellow wood one day and stops at a point of divergence. He was confused which road he should choose because both roads looked similar yet different. At the end he chose the second road which seemed less travelled.

Questions and Answers

Q. Where does the traveller find himself? What problem does he face?

Ans. The traveller finds himself on a road that diverged into the yellow woods. He faces the problem of choosing between the two roads as he wants to choose the best.

Q. Discuss what these phrases mean to you.

a) A yellow wood

b) It was grassy and wanted wear

c) The passing there

d) Leaves no step had trodden black

e) How way leads on to way

Ans. a) Poet used a yellow wood to refer to the autumn season at that time.

b) By saying it was grassy and wanted wear the poet means that the grass on the road he chose to take was still fresh and it looked that the road was less travelled as it looked less shabby. He took it as fewer people had walked on it.

c) By the passing there the poet is referring to the people who have used that road.

d) The poet uses leaves no step had trodden black to explain that there were no footprints on the grass and this can be taken as nobody has used that path.

e) The poet uses how way leads on to way to signify how one route/road leads to another. By this, he also wants to say that one can never get back to the position from where he started

Q. Is there any difference between the two roads as the poet describes them in the following cases

a) In stanzas two and three?

b) In the last two lines of the poem?

Ans. a) If we talk about stanzas two and three, then the poet expresses similarities between the two roads. He is also trying to find the difference between the two roads. He comes to a point that even if two of the roads are similar still somehow the second one was a better choice. He came to this conclusion because the second road appeared less walked over.

b) If we talk about the last two lines of the poem, then the poet mentions that one of the roads was less chosen by people and he also mentions how this decision will change his life.

Q. What do you think the last two lines of the poem mean?

Ans. In the last two lines of the poem, the poet mentions that one of the roads was less chosen by people and he opted for the less travelled road. He also mentions how this decision changed his life. He doesn’t specify if the outcome of his decision was positive or negative.

FAQs

Q. What did the poet think that he would do one day? Was he sure of that?

Ans. The poet thought that he would come back one day to travel the road not taken. However, he was not sure if he would be able to do this or not

Q. What does the poet mean by “worn them really about the same”?

Ans. By using the words worn them really about the same, the poet wants to say that both the roads were similar and got divided into yellow woods. He also wants to say that both were equally opted by travellers

Q. Was one road better than the other?

Ans. The two roads were similar yet different. The poet wanted to travel both but he can’t travel both. So, considering second a better choice, he decided to travel that. He came to this conclusion because the second road appeared less walked over.