NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Literature Reader Chapter 7 The Road Not Taken
Textbook Questions Solved
Question 1.
Sometimes the choices we make have far-reaching consequences. Think about choices you make on a daily basis, and the importance of these choices.
Answer:
For self-attempt.
Question 2.
Complete the web chart showing choices and decisions you may have to make in the next few years and the factors that affect these choices:
Share your choices and decisions with your partner.
Answer:
Question 3.
Have you made choices that are acceptable and less ‘risky’ or have you followed the beaten track? Why?
Answer:
I know I am a student of just above average intellect and skills. I am not extraordinary or unique. Hence, I prefer to make choices that are ‘acceptable’ and less ‘risky’. I can’t afford to be very innovative and adventurous.
Question 4.
List common dilemmas that teenagers face involving the choice of one or more “roads”. Give examples of “roads” that you must travel (e.g. facing peer pressure, choosing friends, observing rules laid down by school and parents, acting on your own values).
Answer:
The teenagers do face common dilemmas involving the choice of one or more “roads”. The common dilemmas that most of the teenagers face in life are:
(a) facing peer pressure
(b) choosing the right kind of friends
(c) observing rules laid down by school and parents
(d) following the instructions of the parents
(e) choosing the right profession
(f) following the right moral and social values
(g) choosing appropriate clothes and shoes In all these common dilemmas, I want to opt for ‘safer’ and ‘less risky’ options.
Question 5.
(a) Listen to a recording of the poem.
(b) What choice did the poet have to make?
(c) Did he regret his choice? Why/why not?
Answer:
(a) Do it yourself.
(b) The poet faced a genuine dilemma. ‘Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.’Naturally, he couldn’t travel both. He stood there in confusion which one he should leave and which one he should follow. Both of them were equally beautiful. At last, he made a choice. He left the first one for another day. He chose the other road as it was ‘grassy’ and ‘wanted wear’.
(c) The poet regrets his choice. Had he chosen the other road, perhaps all his ambitions in life might have been fulfilled. Hence, he sighs with a sense of dissatisfaction.
Question 6.
See textbook on page 65.
Answer:
Do it yourself.
Question 7.
On the basis of your understanding of the poem, answer the following questions by ticking the correct choice:
(a) In the poem, a traveller comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go to continue his journey. Figuratively the choice of the road denotes __________.
(i) the tough choices people make on the road of life.
(ii) the time wasted on deciding what to do.
(iii) life is like a forest.
(iv) one must travel a lot to realise his dreams.
Answer:
(i) the tough choices people make on the road of life.
(b) The poet writes, ‘Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.’ The word diverged means ________.
(i) appeared
(ii) curved
(iii) branched off
(iv) continued on
Answer:
(iii) branched off
(c) The tone of the speaker in the first stanza is that of
(i) excitement
(ii) anger
(iii) hesitation and thoughtfulness
(iv) sorrow
Answer:
(iii) hesitation and thoughtfulness
Question 8.
Answer the following questions briefly:
(i) Describe the two roads that the author comes across.
(ii) Which road does the speaker choose? Why?
(iii) Which road would you choose? Why?
(iv) Does the speaker seem happy about his decision?
(v) The poet says “I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference.” What is ‘the difference’ that the poet mentions?
Answer:
(i) The poet sees two roads diverging in a yellow wood. Perhaps it was autumn and both the roads were covered with dead or fallen yellow leaves. The first one went down in ‘the undergrowth’ of the forest. The other road was equally beautiful, grassy and ‘wanted wear’. It was less frequented by than the first.
(ii) The poet had to come out of the dilemma as he couldn’t travel on both the roads at the same time. He left the first one for the other day. He chose the second road which had been less travelled by and ‘wanted wear’. It was equally fair, grassy and covered with yellow leaves.
(iii) I would choose the second road. I am a young man with great ability to face challenges and adventures that come in life. The untrodden road would give me opportunities to come across several new adventures which I like the most.
(iv) The speaker doesn’t seem to be happy about his decision. Whether the choice is right or wrong can’t be decided on the spur of the moment. Only after ‘ages and ages’ he will realise the mistake that he made years ago. He will be ‘telling with a sigh’ to others that it was not a wise decision. Two roads diverged in a wood and he ‘took the one less travelled by’. The roads are fascinating metaphors for life. The choice has made all the difference in his life.
(v) The poet says “I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference”. The difference is that he did not choose that way of life which most people generally choose to get easy success, fame and money in life. On the other hand, he chose the road that was “less travelled by”. It was certainly risky and adventurous to choose such a road. Perhaps, he means that he chose to be a poet and sacrificed other convenient traditional and more lucrative professions. To be a poet, perhaps, turned out to be a risky and adventurous choice. Perhaps he realised it ‘ages and ages’ after he had made the decision.
Question 9.
Write the rhyme scheme of the poem.
Answer:
The rhyme scheme of the poem is : ab, aa, b.
Question 10.
Fill in the blanks to complete the following paragraph that gives the theme of the poem. Use the words given in the box below:
The poem “ The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is about the 1. that one makes in life. It tells about a man who comes to a 2. in the road he is travelling upon. He feels 3. that he cannot travel 4. paths as he must choose one. Frost uses this fork in the road to represent a point in the man’s life where he has to choose the 5. he wishes to take in life. As he thinks about his 6. he looks down one path as far as he can see trying to 7. what life will be like if he walks that path. He then gazes at the other and decides the outcome of going down that path would be just as 8. At this point he concludes that the 9. that has been less travelled on would be more 10. when he reaches the end of it. The man then decides that he will save the other path for another day, even though he knows that one path leads to another and that he won’t get a 11. to go back. The man then says that he will be telling this story with a sigh someday in the future suggesting that he will 12. what life would have been like if he had chosen the more walked path even though the path he chose has made all the difference.
Answer:
1. choices
2. fork
3. sorry
4. both
5. direction
6. decision
7. foresee
8. pleasant
9. trail
10. rewarding
11. chance
12. wonder
Question 11.
Roads are fascinating as metaphors for life, change, journeys, partings, adventure, etc. or simply as roads. This is probably why they, and all their attendant images, have permeated art, literature and song. In the poem, Frost uses the fork in the road as a metaphor for the choices we make in life. Thus the roads are, in fact, two alternative ways of life. What other nouns could be used to represent life?
- River
- __________
- __________
- __________
- __________
- __________
Answer:
- River
- Milestone
- Weather
- Changing seasons
- New leaves
- Train/Ship/Boat.
Question 12.
In groups of six, select, write the script of and present a skit that demonstrates decision making and conflict resolution. Follow the steps given below:
- choices to be made
- options to be considered
- the influence of others
- the decisions/actions taken
- the immediate and future consequences of the decision.
Answer:
Classroom activity.
Question 13.
‘The Road Not Taken’ is a biographical poem. Therefore, some personal biographical information is relevant to the deeper understanding of the poem we have read. Go to www.encarta.com and complete the following worksheet about Robert Frost.
(a) What “momentous decision” was made by Frost in 1912?
(b) How old was he when he took this decision?
(c) Why was it so difficult to make this decision? Think and give more than one reason.
(d) Was the ‘road’ Frost had taken easy ‘to travel’?
(e) Do you think he wrote “The Road Not Taken” before sailing from the USA to England or after? Can you quote a line or two from the poem that can support your answer?
(f) Do you think Frost finally became popular in America as a poet?
Answer:
(a) Frost made the momentous decision of going to England from America.
(b) He was 38 when he made that momentous decision.
(c) It was quite difficult to take that decision because:
- He was leaving the country of his birth and going to a foreign country.
- He was risking to adopt a profession that was not very rewarding.
- He had to sell his property to go there.
(d) No, the road was not easy to travel.
(e) I think Frost wrote “The Road Not Taken’ after sailing from the USA to England. The lines that prove this point are: ‘I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence.’
(f) Robert Frost became very popular in the USA. He was widely read and appreciated as a poet in his lifetime.
Question 14.
You can find more information about Robert Frost at the following websites:
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets. cfm?prmID= 1961.
Hear the poet (who died almost forty years ago!) reading the poem at . http://www.poets.org/poems/poems. cfm?prmID= 1645
To view a beautiful New England scene with each poem in this web site: “Illustrated Poetry of Robert Frost” : http://www.geocities.com/Athens/ Olympus/1487/index.html Answer: For self-attempt.
Paraphrase & Reference To Context
Read the given extracts and answer the questions that follow:
Question 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 as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
(Lines 1—5)
अनुवाद : (पतझड़ में) पीले वन में से दो सड़कें दो अलग-अलग दिशाओं की ओर अलग कर रही थीं। मुझे अफसोस है कि मैं दोनों सड़कों पर (एक ही समय) नहीं चल सकता था। मैं काफी देर तक वहाँ खड़ा उस सड़क को जितनी दूर देख सकता था देखता रहा जहां से वह झाड़ियों और छोटे-छोटे पेड़ों में मुड़ कर लुप्त हो गयी थी।
Paraphrase: The poet was standing at a junction in a yellow forest where two roads separated in two different directions. The poet feels sorry that being the lonely traveller, he could not walk on both the roads at the same time. He stood there for a long time looking at the road down as far as he could. The road then bent and disappeared from his eyes in bushes and the undergrowth.
(a) Why does the poet feel ‘sorry’?
(b) Where do the two roads diverge in?
(c) What is the mood of the poet in these lines?
Answer:
(a) The poet feels sorry that he can’t travel on both the roads diverging in the forest before him.
(b) The two roads diverge in the wood where the leaves have turned yellow in the autumn.
(c) The mood of the poet appears to be serious and pensive.
Question 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,
(Lines 6—10)
अनुवाद: मैंने दूसरी सड़क पकड़ ली, जो कि पहली जितनी ही सुन्दर थी। और शायद वह अपने पर चलने का बेहतर दावा पेश करती थी क्योंकि वह घास से ढकी हुई थी और घिसी भी नहीं थी। यद्यपि जहां तक उन पर यात्रियों के चलने से घिसने का प्रश्न था, वे दोनों समान रूप से ही घिसी हुई थीं।
Paraphrase: Then the poet took the other road which was as beautiful as the first one. The second road presented a better claim because it was (still) grassy and had not worn off due to walking of the travellers. As far as the question of their being worn due to walking of the travellers, both of them had worn in the same way.
(a) How was the other road?
(b) Why did the second road present a better claim than the first?
(c) What is the rhyme-scheme of the given lines?
Answer:
(a) The other road was as fair and beautiful as the first one.
(b) The second road presented a better claim as it was still grassy and had not worn off due to walking of travellers.
(c) The rhyme-scheme of these lines is: ab, aa, b.
Question 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.
(Lines 11–15)
अनुवाद: उस सुबह दोनों सड़कें मेरे सामने बराबर रूप से फैली हुई थीं। दोनों गिरे हुए पत्तों से बराबर ढकी हुई थीं। यह स्पष्ट था कि दोनों के ऊपर पड़े हुए पत्तों को यात्रियों के पैरों ने अभी मैला नहीं किया था। हाँ मैंने पहली सड़क को किसी और दिन के लिये छोड़ दिया। हाँलांकि मैं यह जानता था कि एक रास्ते से दूसरा रास्ता निकलता जाता है और मुझे सन्देह भी था कि मैं फिर कभी लौटकर (छोड़ी हुई) पहली सड़क पर चल पाऊंगा।
Paraphrase: Both the roads lay in front of the poet almost in the same condition. They were covered with the fallen leaves. And the leaves had not been blackened by the steps of the walkers. The leaves still lay there uncrushed by the steps. The poet left the first road thinking that he would use it on some other day. When he was doing so, he knew that how one way leads to another. He would go so far from the first road that he doubted if he would ever come back to walk on it.
(a) How did both the roads lie?
(b) Why did the poet leave the first road?
(c) Why did the poet suffer from a doubt?
Answer:
(a) Both the roads lay there with their leaves and grass not crushed by the steps of the travellers.
(b) The poet left the first road in the hope that he would travel on it on another day.
(c) The poet doubted if he would ever come back to the same place to walk on the road that he had left for another day.
Question 4.
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.
(Lines 16—20)
अनुवाद: कवि अपने निर्णय से अधिक प्रसन्न नहीं है। एक दम क्षण भर में यह निर्णय लेना बहुत कठिन है। शायद अनेक वर्ष बाद, वह दुख के साथ जाहिर कर पायेगा कि उसका फैसला उचित नहीं था। वहां दो सड़क थीं जो दो विपरीत दिशाओं की ओर जा रही थीं। और उसने उस सड़क पर चलने का फैसला किया जिसका कम प्रयोग किया गया था। यह उसका अपना फैसला था, और इसी फैसले ने उसके जीवन में अंतर ला दिया था।
Paraphrase: The poet does not seem to be very happy with his choice. Just now, it is very difficult to pass the judgement on the spur of the moment. After many years, perhaps he will be telling with a sigh that his choice was not very rewarding. There were two roads that separated in two different directions. And he chose the road which had been less travelled by. The choice was his own. And this choice has made all the difference in his life.
(a) Does the poet seem to be happy with his choice?
(b) What will the poet be telling with a sigh?
(c) What has made all the difference in his life?
Answer:
(a) The poet doesn’t seem to be happy with his choice.
(b) The poet will be telling with a sigh about the option he had chosen many years ago.
(c) The exercise of the option or the choice of the road that was less travelled by made all the difference in his life.
Extract Based Questions (3 Marks each)
Question 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 as I could”
(a) Name the poem and the poet of above extract.
(b) What does the poet mean by ‘yellow wood’?
(c) He could not travel both the roads, why? (Board Term I 2012, Set 35)
Answer:
(a) The poem is ‘The Road Not Taken’, and the poet is Robert Frost.
(b) ‘Yellow wood’ means the decomposing leaves and the autumn season.
(c) Being an individual, the poet could not travel two roads at the same time. (1 × 3 = 3)
Question 2:
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And by one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth”;
(a) What does the yellow wood mean?
(b) Why does the poet stand long?
(c) What is the rhyme scheme of die stanza? (Board Term I 2012, Set 45)
Answer:
(a) Yellow wood refers to the decomposing leaves and the autumn season.
(b) The poet was in a dilemma about which road to take. Both the roads were equally worn and were covered with leaves.
(c) abaab. (1 × 3 = 3)
Question 3:
“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 as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.”
(a) Name the poem and the poet of these lilies.
(b) Why did the poet look down as far as he could?
(c) What do the roads represent in these lines? (Board Term 12012, Set 49)
Answer:
(a) The poem is ‘The Road Not Taken’ and the poet is Robert Frost.
(b) The poet is at a point where he cannot travel on both the roads and has to make a decision. He looks down one as far as he can to help him make the decision.
(c) The roads represent the choices that one has to take in life. (1 × 3 = 3)
Question 4:
“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) Who does ‘both’ refer to?
(b) Why does the poet doubt his coming back?
(c) Why would the poet like to come back? (Board Term 12012, Set 52)
Answer:
(a) ‘Both’ refers to the two roads.
(b) The poet doubts his coming back because one path would lead to another path.
(c) The poet would like to come back to travel on the road not taken. (1 x 3 = 3)
Short Answer Type Questions (30-40 Words) (2 Marks each)
Question 1:
‘The Road Not Taken’ is a poem of all times. Comment on it. (Board Term 1,2015 BR7GWHM)
Answer:
Value Points:
The poem is relevant for all times as everyone faces dilemmas at every step in life and they have to take decisions. (CBSE Marking Scheme, 2015)
Detailed Answer: The poem is relevant for all times as everyone faces dilemmas at every step in life.We have to face the difficulty of making a choice in life.One should move on without looking back or thinking whether it was a right choice or not.
Question 2:
In the poem “The Road Not Taken”, where is the poet and what does he see in front of him?
(Board Term 12015,6SOOKQ5)
Answer:
Value Points:
The poet was in a forest and he saw a road dividing into two in front of him leading into the forest
(CBSE Marking Scheme, 2015)
Detailed Answer: Robert Frost came across a path which diverged into two roads. One road is less trodden and full of challenges, while the other is a beaten track without any difficulty.
Question 3:
Which road does Robert Frost choose and why?
(Board Term 12014, NCT-R; 2013, AGRO-91; 2012, Set 34)
Answer:
Robert Frost comes across a path which diverges into two roads. One road is less trodden and full of challenges while the other is a beaten track without any difficulties. He chooses the road which is less travelled by the people, because, it is more inviting and the poet is adventurous by nature and loves to take challenges.
Question 4:
How is a road a metaphor? Use examples from the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ to support your answer.
(Board Term 12014, MZPD310)
Or
Bring out the symbolism in the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’. (Board Term 12012, Set 72)
Answer:
The poem is concerned with a choice made between the two roads. The poet tells himself that he will explore one and then come back and explore the other, but he knows that he will probably be unable to do so. The poem is about something more than the choice of paths in a wood, for that choice might be relatively unimportant. We interpret his choice of a road as a symbol for any choice in life between alternatives that appear almost equally attractive. Through the years, however, we come to find that the choices we make and the paths we choose, will make a difference in our lives.
Question 5:
The final stanza in the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ starts ‘with a sigh’. Why?
(Board Term 12013, NVZJUD2)
Answer:
The final stanza in the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ starts ‘with a sigh’. It is a sigh of relief and satisfaction. The poet is satisfied with all that has happened in his life and the position that he is in. It is a sigh of relief that on that day he had taken the ‘road less travelled by’ and ‘that has made all the difference.’
Question 6:
The title ‘The Road Not Taken’ is an appropriate title for the poem. Comment.
(Board Term 12013, PNZTXU9)
Or
Justify the title, The Road Not Taken. (Board Term 12012, Set 54)
Answer:
The title brings out the theme of the poem in which every person at some stage of his life comes across situation where he has to make a choice. The decision taken to do things differently makes one stand out of the crowd.The title is figurative as the roads symbolize the dilemmas of life. The title “The Road Not Taken’ is fully justified.
Question 7:
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” What do the two roads indicate here? What was the poet’s dilemma?
(Board Term 12012, Set 34)
Answer:
The two roads indicate the choices one makes in life. The poet has presented the dilemma that one goes through while taking a decision regarding one’s future. Man faces such dilemma as he is afraid of making the wrong choice which could have far reaching consequences. Man, therefore, takes a less risky and acceptable decision.
Question 8:
What is the theme of the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’? (Board Term 12012, Set 40)
Answer:
The theme of the poem is that one should accept the challenges in his life. Man should dare to walk on the untrodden path and take risk. Tough challenges have far reaching consequences. They can change a person’s life.
Question 9:
Why did the poet leave the first road? (Board Term 12012, Set 46)
Answer:
The poet leaves the first road that is well trodden and chooses the one that is less travelled by’. It is the second road that is full of challenges. It is this road that would make him standout and that has ‘made all the difference’.
Question 10:
The poet says, ‘I took the one less travelled by and that has made all the difference’. What is the difference that the poet mentions? (Board Term 12012, Set 56)
Answer:
The poet says that it was his choice of that particular road which has shaped his life.The poet adopts the less travelled path and faces problems. But later, he achieved both success and fame as a famous poet in America as well as in his own country, England.He stands out in the crowd today as a result of his tough decision.
Question 11:
What conflict does the poet face in “The Road Not Taken”? (Board Term 12012, Set 60)
Or
What dilemma did the speaker face in the poem “The Road Not Taken”? (Board Term 12010, Set B2)
Answer:
The conflict that the poet faces is to choose one of the two, roads and whether his decision would be the right one.
One road is less trodden, adventurous and full of challenges, while the other road is more trodden upon.It is a beaten track which is easy and without any difficulties.
Question 12:
In the poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’, why did the poet feel like travelling both the roads?
(Board Term 12012, Set 62)
Answer:
Once, the poet came across a junction when his path diverged into two. One road was well trodden upon while the other road was grassy as less people had travelled on it. He felt like travelling both the roads because he was not sure of the outcome of his choice. He wanted to have an experience of both the situations.
Question 13:
What do the two roads symbolize in the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’? (Board Term 12012, Set 63)
Or
What does the road symbolize in the poem? How much important is it to take the right ‘road’ in life?
(Board Term 12010, Set B1)
Answer:
The two roads symbolize the choices that one has to make in life. It is very important to make the right choice because we can never retrace our path and go back. One road would lead on to another and there is no coming back.
Question 14:
The poet kept the other road for another day. Was he able to travel back on that road? Explain.
(Board Term 12012, Set 70)
Answer:
The author had kept the other road for some other time. He could never come back as the road he took led to other roads. Each road taken would have something new for him to explore.There was no coming back to that road again.
Question 15:
“Robert Frost did not feel dejected and disappointed on choosing the second road.” Justify the statement with suitable examples from the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’. (Board Term 12010, Set A1)
Answer:
The poet leaves a sigh of relief on having made this choice.Repetition of ‘I’ shows his sense of pride in exercising his individualism and his saying that it has made all the difference.
Question 16:
What makes the narrator’s choice difficult in the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’. (Board Term 12010, Set B1)
Answer:
One road is frequently travelled by people. It is a known, beaten track which seems to be safe. The second road appears to be a less travelled one and full of challenges. That is why it is a difficult choice.
Question 17:
What message does Robert Frost give to his readers through his poem ‘The Road Not Taken’.
(Board Term 12010, Set C1)
Answer:
It shows us that one should be Willing to exercise one’s individualism.One should not follow the crowd but be different from others.We should accept challenges and be ready to take risks in order to succeed in life.
Question 18:
What does the choice made by the poet indicate about his personality in the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’?
(Board Term 12010, Set A1)
Answer:
The poet chose the road less travelled by. This indicates that he believes in charting his own path in life rather than doing what others expect him to do. He is adventurous and loves to take risks in life. He wants to stand out in the crowd.
Question 19:
Why did the poet doubt his coming back on the same intersection in life? (Board Term 12010, Set C1)
Answer:
The poet is pragmatic enough to know that one way leads to another, meaning that life moves on, retracing one’s steps is not in the nature of things. The choices made today will mark his life later through the years.
Question 20:
According to the poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’, what Robert Frost would tell after a period of time?Why?
(Board Term 12010, Set A1)
Answer:
According to the poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’, the poet would be telling with a ‘sense of sigh’, that he took the road ‘less travelled by’ and that has made all the difference. It is only by taking challenges that one can become successful in life. Following the crowd will not make you stand out.
Question 21:
What message does the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ give us?
Answer:
The poet conveys a very important message in this poem.He tells us that man comes across many situations when he has to take a decision which sometimes can be crucial.
We must make the right choice by keeping in mind that ‘opportunity knocks only once’.
Long Answer Type Questions (80-100 Words) (4 Marks each)
Question 1:
What would you like to become in life? Would you follow the crowd or choose a destination which would be exemplary for others.Give reasons for your answer taking hints from the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’. (Board Term 12013, PNZTXU9)
Answer:
I would like to make my individualistic choice that would help me to choose a destination which would be exemplary for others.It is true that every person faces a dilemma in life. He comes across the problem of making choices in life. The important thing is how the decisions are taken. The road is symbolic of the opportunities that come in our life and compel us to take the right decision. The divergence of the-road is symbolic of the dilemma we face in life when one is caught in a problem. The choices have to be made thoughtfully and wisely.Adventurous people take the less travelled path. All these choices decide their future. Their life is affected by these choices as the step once taken cannot be retraced.
Question 2:
Imagine Robert Frost writes a letter to his friend Tom Hawkins about the factors that helped him to decide on what to do next in life and why he chose to be adventurous and different from others.Write the letter in about 150 words.
(Board Term 12012, Set 57)
Answer:
Robert house
Washington 23th September, 1957
Dear Tom,
Hope you are in the best of spirits.
A time comes in the life of every man when he has to make a difficult and an important choice. The decision taken can prove to be wrong, but the decision has to be made as the choice made affects one’s future prospects.I too came across such a junction in my life when I had to choose between poetry and teaching in school.I gave a serious thought to each road. I was well aware of the fact that my life was affected by the choice I would make because the step once taken cannot be retraced. Finally, I chose the less travelled path as I am adventurous by nature and also because I want to be different horn others.I took the risk of shifting my family to England to promote my professional interest.I am grateful to God that my choice was right. I employed traditional patterns to write poems. Today, I stand out in the crowd.I am among one of tire country’s best loved poets. I am a well known and an acknowledged poet today.
With lots of love,
Robert Frost –
Question 3:
Does the speaker seem happy about his decision? (Board Term 12012, Set 28)
Answer:
The poet is in an indecisive state. He is assailed by doubts concerning his choice.He is well aware of the fact that if his choice turns out to be misplaced, there will be no going back. He also has a feeling that his choice might be crowned with success. ,
The unknown is not always a risky business. It might open the door to success too, as it happened in the case of the poet himself. Being adventurous by nature, he decides to plunge into the unknown.He seems happy about the decision as taking risk is a part of his nature.
Question 4:
At every stage of life, man has to make crucial decisions.Keeping in mind Robert Frost’s poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’, describe a peculiar situation where you took a decision that changed the course of your life.
(Board Term 12012, Set 67)
Answer:
Everyone comes across a problem in life in which he has to take a decision which can change his life.The decision can prove to be wrong as its impact on our future is unpredictable. Consequences of wrong choices will have to be faced by the person himself. Nonetheless, the decision has to be taken.It is not always a risky business.The choice may be crowned with success too as it happened in the case of the poet himself.
The poet, once, came across a junction when his path diverged into two.He wanted to experience both the situations, but the decision had to be made. It was ultimately his choice of that particular road which changed his life.The poet adopted the less travelled path, faced problems but later achieved both success and fame not only in England, but in America too.
One cannot get everything in life.He has to take a decision and stick to it.Tough decisions make him stand out in the crowd. We should accept challenges and be ready to take risks in order to succeed in life.
Question 5:
Based on your understanding of the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’, write a diary entry of the speaker in the poem about the day he had to make a choice. (Board Term 12010, Set A2)
Answer:
Monday, 25th April, 2015
10.30 p.m.
Dear Diary
In every person’s life there comes a point of time when he has to make a choice. Such a time came in my life too.I was in a dilemma as to what I should do. People generally take the much travelled path as it is tried and tested. However, there was another path that I could take on which hone had travelled. There would be difficulties and problems and risks. Maybe it would not be the right choice, but it appealed to me more, as if it was waiting to be tried.I decided to keep the first one for another day, knowing well that I might not ever come back. I have made a decision, how it will turn out, nobody knows.In the evening of my life, I will be telling this story to someone. It is difficult to forecast whether I will be happy or full of regret at the choice I have made. Well, only time will decide.
Good night.
Question 6:
The poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ revolves around a serious conflict of life. What is this conflict? How is it resolved?
(Value Based Question)
Answer:
The serious conflict in this poem is the choice that one often comes across in his lifetime.Man gets many opportunities in life. He gets an opportunity to choose between them.The decision that he has to take is important as it can change his whole life. He can’t retrace his steps once he starts moving on the path he has taken.So, one must make a choice after weighing the pros and cons of the opportunities that life shows in one’s path.It is none the less important to stick to the decision once taken. Risks involved will help him stand out in the crowd.
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