The Road Not Taken

Summary
Line 1

In this line Frost introduces the elements of his primary metaphor, the diverging roads.

Lines 2-3

Here the speaker expresses his regret at his human limitations, that he must make a choice. Yet, the choice is not easy, since “long I stood” before coming to a decision.

Lines 4-5

He examines the path as best he can, but his vision is limited because the path bends and is covered over. These lines indicate that although the speaker would like to acquire more information, he is prevented from doing so because of the nature of his environment.

Lines 6-8

In these lines, the speaker seems to indicate that the second path is a more attractive choice because no one has taken it lately. However, he seems to feel ambivalent, since he also describes the path as “just as fair” as the first rather than more fair.

Lines 9-12

Although the poet breaks the stanza after line 10, the central idea continues into the third stanza, creating a structural link between these parts of the poem. Here, the speaker states that the paths are “really about the same.” Neither path has been traveled lately. Although he’s searching for a clear logical reason to decide on one path over another, that reason is unavailable.

Lines 13-15

The speaker makes his decision, trying to persuade himself that he will eventually satisfy his desire to travel both paths, but simultaneously admitting that such a hope is unrealistic. Notice the exclamation mark after line 13; such a punctuation mark conveys excitement, but that excitement is quickly undercut by his admission in the following lines.

Lines 16-20

In this stanza, the tone clearly shifts. This is the only stanza which also begins with a new sentence, indicating a stronger break from the previous ideas. The speaker imagines himself in the future, discussing his life. What he suggests, here, though, appears to contradict what he has said earlier. At the end of the poem, in the future, he will claim that the paths were different from each other and that he courageously did not choose the conventional route. Perhaps he will actually believe this in the future; perhaps he only wishes that he could choose “the one less traveled by.”

Sample Q's And A's

Question (1): What is a wood?

Answer: A cluster of trees growing wild, a mini forest.

Question (2): What did the poet see in the yellow wood?

Answer: The poet saw two paths diverging in different directions.

Question (3): How was one path different from the other?

Answer: One was greener; it had more grass and seemed less used.

Question (4): Which path had been walked on that morning before the poet travelled on one?

Answer: None of them had been used.

Question (5): When the poet chose one of the paths what did he hope to do?

Answer: Come back and fry the other path.

Question (6): 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.

Stanza 4 relates a simple experience in a wood to real life experiences. Elucidate.

Answer: This stanza compares the path to life itself. In life we have to take decisions that will decide the whole future or the course our life will take.

Question (7): Does the poet regret his decision.

Answer: The poem does not have the mood of regret but mere stating of a fact of life. He uses the word 'sigh' to convey deep thoughts.

Question (8): The poet has compared life to a fork in the path to show the decisions we need to take in life. What would a comparison of life to the following depict?

a) Life is a seesaw
b) Life is a celebration
c) Life is an adventure
d) Life is a journey

Answer: a) Ups and Downs

b) Many happy moments

c) So many goals to achieve, hardships to overcome

d) We meet people, experience incidents, ultimately reaching the destination of God.

Question (9): Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry, I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far I could;
To where it bent in the undergrowth,

a) Where did the poet stand? What did he see?

b) Why did the poet stand there for "long"?

c) Why does the poet describe the woods as yellow?

Answer: a) The poet stood at a point where two road diverged in a forest. It was Autumn and the leaves of the trees had turned yellow and were falling.

b) The poet stood there for "long" as he was thinking which road he should choose. The poet here is using 'roads' as symbols of choices in life one makes.

c) It is Autumn time and the leaves have turned from green to brown to yellow and the entire forest looks like this so he has described it as yellow.

Question (10): 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 these
Had worn them really about the same.

a) Which road did the poet take?

b) Why did the poet take the "other" road?

Answer: a) The poet took the other road; meaning the road that was not taken by most of the travellers.

b) The poet took the road less travelled by - which is the other road, because it looked equally attractive, and it 'looked grassy and needed people to walk on it so it would look as worn out or travelled on as the one that he did not choose to go on.

Question (11): 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) How did both the roads look like that morning?

b) Explain: "Oh I kept the first for another day!"

c) What does the poet mean when the says "Way leads on to way"?

d) What did the poet doubt?

Answer: a) Both the roads were equally covered by leaves indicating that they had not be trampled or walked over by anyone that morning. They had freshly fallen and therefore did not look black.

b) The poet decided that he would walk on the first road some other day. Now he wanted to walk on the second road as it was grassy and wanted someone to make it worn out. So he exercise his choice in favour of the second road.

c) The poet says that one road leads to another and so as one goes ahead and further ahead, one can hardly retrace one's steps and go back to the beginning and start anew.

d) After making his choice of going on the second road, the poet feels he may not be able to retrace his steps and walk on the first road - that is begin all over again; even though he wishes he could do so. He realizes that as one goes ahead in life - one finds it difficult to go back - one only goes forward.

Question (12): I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two road diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

a) Why does the poet say he shall tell people 'this with a sigh'?

b) What does the poet mean by "I took the one less traveled by"?

c) What "difference" has been made by his choice?

Answer: a) The poet wishes to walk on the road that he has not chosen, but he has accepted the fact that once a choice is made it is difficult to go back on it. So if when explaining it people why he chose what he chose, he will justify his choice with a sigh- indicating that he could not choose both, he chose one and that is the fact of life.

b) "I took the one less traveled by' indicates that the poet made a choice not exercised by a majority of people.

c) The poet has made a decision to choose the road less traveled by - not many have taken the road that he has chosen. He is what he is today because of the choice he made several years ago. If he had chosen a different path, he would not be what he was today, he would have been a different pers

Question (13): What is the central theme of the poem "The Road Not Taken"?

Answer: Iin this poem "The Road Not Taken", Robert Frost beautifully describes the choices we make in life and its impact on our future.

What choice we make today has a great effect on who we become tomorrow. When we reach a point where choices have to be made by us how do we make our decisions - do we do what everyone else does and find a solution, or do we do what few people have done and find our own solution.

We cannot do both, however much we may want to as once we make a choice, it becomes difficult to retrace our steps. We thus end up becoming what we are due to the choice we have made earlier. Therefore, making the "right" choice is very important. We must make our choice based on what we want rather than what the others or the majority have done. The entire poem is a metaphor - the roads are being compared to the decisions we make in life.