The Road Not Taken

 The Road Not Taken 

The Road Not Taken

-      Robert Frost

Introduction

The poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ is based on common day to day life experience, when we have to make one choice out of many choices. At this point in time, we need to make the fullest use of our wisdom to choose the right option.

In this poem, the two roads symbolize the choices that are presented by the life to us. Our future and the way of living our life totally depend on the decisions taken by us in the present time.

Later on, sometimes, we look back and become thoughtful about those decisions we took in the past. Peeping in the past, we also wonder how our life would have been completely different had we chosen the other options.

Title

The title of the poem suggests us that it is indicating about absence. It is about the road that was “Not Taken” by the poet. And it gives him time and space to rethink about his decision. But on the other hand, the title may suggest that the poem is about the road that was “Not Taken” by many travellers—the less travelled road.

Summary

Once the poet was walking down a road in a wood and he found himself at a fork: there were two different paths and he had to choose one out them.  The poet looked down both the roads to reach his decision as to which road to be travelled by him. He stood at the fork, observing the closely and found that  the second road was less travelled as it was grassy and needed to be trampled down. He thought this road could be a better choice for him and he started walking down the second road, however having travelled some distance on that road, he found that this road was also equally trodden by the travellers and there was no difference between the two roads.

The poet found that morning both the roads were looking same and they were covered with fallen leaves. He also noticed that no traveller had travelled either of the roads as there were no footprints there. He felt sorry that he could not travel both the roads, but he consoled himself that he would travel the first road sometime in future. However, altogether he knew that it was impossible to do so. He says that in the future, he will take a deep breath and say that once upon a time, he had reached such a point in life that there were two options for him and he travelled on that road which was travelled upon by lesser number of people and that made a lot of difference in his life.

Contradiction /Ambiguity in the poem                                  

The poem creates some sort of confusion in the mind of the reader. Firstly the poet claimed that the second road was less travelled as it appeared grassy, however, after having walked on the second road for a while, he found that it was also equally trodden by the travellers.  Secondly he presented his reflection that he would come back to the forked point to travel the first road some time later, however he immediately contradicted his reflection by saying that as a road leads on another and yet another, he is doubtful whether he would be able to come back to travel the first road or not.

Poetic Devices

1.   “The Road Not Taken” consists of four stanzas of five lines.

2. Rhyme Scheme: abaab

3. Metaphor: two roads which represents two or more choices in our life

4. Anaphora: ‘and’ repeated at the beginning of lines 2, 3 and 4

5. Alliteration: Wanted Wear ‘w’ sound is repeating

‘first for’ – ‘f’ sound is repeating

‘though, that’- ‘th’ sound is repeating

6. Repetition: ‘Ages’ is repeated. ‘Two roads diverged in a wood’- this sentence is repeated in stanzas 1 and 4.

 

 

 

 

Questions/Answers

 

Q1. Where does the traveller find himself? What problem does he face?

A. The traveller finds himself standing on a fork in the road. The problem he faces is that he is in a dilemma to choose the better road for his further journey.

Q2. Discuss what these phrases mean to you.

(i) a yellow wood

A. ‘Yellow wood’ refers to the forest which has withering leaves as in the season of autumn.

(ii) it was grassy and wanted wear

A. It means that the path had a lot of grass on it. This indicates that this road is not travelled by many people and it is needed to be worn out by the steps of the travellers.

(iii) the passing there

A. It means that after walking some distance the road he had chosen.

(iv) leaves no step had trodden black

A. It means that no one had walked over the leaves as they  did not have any marks of footsteps.

(v) how way leads on to way

A. It means that one road opens to another and yet another road.

Q3. Is there any difference between the two roads as the poet describes them

(i) in stanzas two and three?

A. The two paths were similar. In the beginning, the poet felt that one of them was grassy and had not been walked over by many people, but when he walked on it for some distance, he realized that it was also equally trodden.

 (ii) in the last two lines of the poem?

A. In the last two lines the poet has contrasted the two roads: one less travelled and another more travelled. He again contrasted these roads as walking on one road have made his life totally different from what it would have been by walking on the other. 

4. What do you think the last two lines of the poem mean? Looking back, does the poet regret his choice to make?

A. It is not clear, from the poem, whether the poet happy or he regrets his decision while looking back. He only mentions that his life would have been totally different, had he taken the first road.  

 

Additional Questions

1. Describe the two roads that the poet comes across.

2. Why did the poet choose the second road?

3. How the roads were similar and different?

4. Why was the poet doubtful about ever travelling the first road?

5. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow.

                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 travelled by,

            And that has made all the difference.

 

(a) Who is ‘I’ referred to in the extract?

(b) What he will be telling with a sigh?

(c) Explain the term “ages and ages hence.”

(d) What according to the narrator has made all the difference?

Is the traveller happy with the decision he has made?