The Road not Taken Important Questions Class 9 Beehive English
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. What is wood? What did the narrator see in the woods? Were the paths similar?
Answer
Wood means a forest. He saw two paths diverging and disappearing in the undergrowth. No, one had more grass and seemed less used than the other.
Question 2. What did the narrator hope that he would do one day? Was he sure of doing so?
Answer
The narrator hoped to come back and try the other path someday. No, he did not think he would do so because he knew that one path would lead to another and it would be difficult for him to come back.
Question 3. What does the poet mean by ‘yellow wood’?
Answer
‘Yellow wood’ refers to the jungle with decomposing leaves shed from the trees. It stands for a world where people have been living since long.
Question 4. Explain: ‘leaves no step had trodden black’.
Answer
No traveller had trodden on either of the two roads. It was evident from the fact that the fallen and sodden leaves lay uncrushed there. No feet had trampled them.
Question 5. Which road does Robert Frost choose and why?
Answer
Robert Frost chooses the second road less travelled by the travellers. He chose the second road because it was more inviting and wanted to wear’.
Question 6. What season do you think this poem takes place in? Why?
Answer
The speaker tells us the woods are yellow, so we can infer that it’s autumn. The leaves have freshly fallen covering both paths – the one that is much travelled and worn and the road less taken and grassy.
Question 7. Why did the poet leave the first path?
Answer
The poet left the first path because it was well-trodden. Many people had walked on that path. He wanted the excitement and adventure of choosing to walk a path that was not frequented by too many people. It would offer him challenges to face.
Question 8. What does the divergence in the road signify in real life?
Answer
The divergence in the road signifies that many times in real life we have difficult choices to make. We take a long time thinking about which of the two would be a better option and only time can tell whether we were right in making the choice we made. The forking of one road into two is symbolic of the confusion or dilemma we face in life while confronting a problem and making a decision.
Question 9. Discuss the imagery in the poem.
Answer
A very important, element in this poem is its use of natural imagery. The poem is about someone alone in the woods, on an autumn morning. The season is autumn, when the trees are beginning to shed their yellowing leaves, which cover the ground.
Question 10. Does the poet believe that he would ever return to the first road?
Answer
No, the poet does not believe that he would ever be able to return to the first road. He is fully aware that one road leads on to another and that still to another. Hence it will not be possible for him to come back to the point where both the roads bifurcate.
Question 11. What is the theme of the poem The Road Not Taken?
Answer
The poet suggests that we may face dilemmas in life, but one should be ready for challenges. We must take risks and take the more difficult path. Walking on a path not many have taken is more challenging, but it may lead to better results.
Question 12. What did the narrator hope that he would do one day? Was he sure of doing so?
Answer
The narrator hoped to come back and try the other path someday. No, he did not think he would do so because he knew that one path led to another and it would be difficult for him to come back.
Question 13. Why did the poet stand long on the forked road to make the decision?
Answer
The poet took a long time to make a decision because he could not foresee which choice would prove to be beneficial for hint as he looked at the roads he couldn’t see beyond a particular point. One road was well-trodden and the other showed no signs of anyone treading on it. Thus the poet stood there for a long time undecided which one to experiment with.
Question 14. Why did the poet doubt he would ever reach the same intersection again?
Answer
The poet is pragmatic enough to know he may not be able to retrace his steps as one way leads to another. The path he has chosen will probably take him so far from the trodden path that he may find it difficult to return.
Question 15. The poet kept the other road for another day. Was he able to travel back on that road? Explain.
Answer
The poet left the first road thinking that he would use it on some other day. However, he was not able to travel back on that road. He could never come back as the road he took led to other roads. He went so far from the first road that he doubted if he would ever come back to walk on it.
Question 16. Why does the last stanza of the poem start with a sigh?
Answer
The last stanza of the poem begins with a sigh of regret. The title, too, suggests the poem is about the road the poet did not travel on. The poet had left the road more frequented for another day. However, as one path led to another, he was not able to come back and walk on the other road.
Question 17. What is the main problem or the dilemma of the poet?
Answer
Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’ revolves around the dilemma of making the right choices in life. He suffers from an illusion that he can use the option he has left for the other day. Whatever ‘road’ or way of life he chooses, it makes all the difference in his life. Sometimes after a long time, he will have to repent for choosing the path that was less travelled by. It didn’t turn out to be quite a rewarding choice or option.
Question 18. What is the setting of the poem?
Answer
The setting of the poem is a wood where the poet, Robert Frost, has gone for a walk. He comes to a fork in the woods and does not know which path to take. Both the roads are equally attractive and inviting. While one of the roads is the more frequented and easy, the other is less travelled and full of challenges. The poet decides to take the less frequented road.
Question 19. Why has the poet’s choice ‘made all the difference’ in his life?
Answer
Robert Frost uses the fork in the road as a metaphor for the choices we make in life. The two roads represent two alternative ways, two options and two directions of life. One has to face the dilemma. He opts for an unconventional and risky path of life. He chooses to be a poet. This choice has made all the difference in his life. Perhaps he would realise late in life that he chose an alternative which was less rewarding than the one he had left.
Question 20. Which of the two roads did the narrator take? Why?
Answer
The narrator took the road that not many people had taken. It was a grassy road and so more inviting as not many people had walked on it. Also, the poet was more adventurous and wanted to take a route not many had taken. He wanted the challenge of the unknown.
Question 21. Why did the poet leave the first path?
Answer
The poet left the first path because it was well-trodden. Many people had walked on that path. He wanted the excitement and adventure of choosing to walk a path that was not frequented by too many people. It would offer him challenges to face.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Bring out the contrast and similarities between the two roads mentioned in the poem.
Answer
Both the roads mentioned in the poem are the offshoots of the same road. As this mother road running through the ‘yellow woods’ forks into two – these two roads are formed. Both of them are equally inviting and put the traveller in a fix as he stands to wonder which road to take up.
A keen observation reveals that, unlike the other road, one of the roads is well-trodden. It has commonly been chosen by a majority of the people. Maybe it is considered to be an easier path. However, it takes a turn and its end cannot be seen just as the other road’s destination cannot be foreseen. In the morning both the roads are well-covered with leaves as no one has so far ventured on either of the two. Both the roads once chosen would have to be stuck to. Years later whichever road is not taken would be looked at wistfully and one would wonder whether the right choice had been made.
Question 2. Bring out the symbolism in the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’.
Answer
The poem The Road Not Taken’ concerns a choice made between two roads by the poet. The poet decides to explore one road and then come back and explore the other but this might not be possible. The choice of roads in the poem symbolizes the choices that one has to make in life. All the choices appear to be equally attractive. They are confining too as one cannot foretell the eventual result of one’s choice. Through the years, however, we come to find out that the choices we make and the paths we choose, will make all the difference in our lives.
Question 3. What is the moral presented by the poet in the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’?
Answer
This is an inspirational poem and quite tricky, according to Robert Frost himself. The poem presents an antithesis. The traveller comes to a fork and wishes to take both, which is impossible. First, one of the roads is described as grassy and `wanted wear’, then he says that both the roads look the same. This represents the eternal dilemma in man when he finds the grass greener on the other side. This poem is a call for the reader to forge his or her way in life and not follow the path that others have taken. This poem encourages self-reliance, reinforces the power of independent thinking and sticking to one’s decisions. The poet does not moralize about choice. He simply says that choice is inevitable and you will never know until you have lived the `difference.’ So there is nothing right or wrong about a choice, it is all relative. Whatever direction one takes one must pack it with determination and zest for one can never turn the clock back, or relive that moment.
Question 4. Discuss the title of the poem “The Road Not Taken”. Is it appropriate for the poem?
Answer
The poem has an apt title. ‘The road’ is the symbol of the choices made by us in life. Many times, we regret the choice made by us but what is done once cannot be undone. Or, we may be happy for having taken the decisions we did. Even as the speaker makes a choice of taking the path that is less walked on, and leaves the well-trodden path for another day, the speaker knows that he will never be able to return to take the other path.
He knows that sometime in the future he will regret, or at the very least he will wonder, at the other path that is irrevocably lost. He realises that there is no Right Path—just the chosen path and the other path. Ages hence, he will sigh over the decisions taken. Hence, the poet has given his poem the title “The Road Not Taken”.
Question 5. Debate the topic ‘The speaker is purposefully ambiguous about whether or not he’s -happy with his choice.’
Answer
“The Road Not Taken” is a poem about the other road or the choices one makes. When he has to make a choice, the speaker takes the road that many people have avoided, or the road less taken. The other road is the road the speaker did not take. He does want to return to the road at some point, but knows he will not be able to come back to take that road. There is something about his decision of not taking the other road that causes the speaker to sigh in remembrance of not leaving it. The sigh seems to be a sad sigh, simply because he could not take both roads.
The speaker feels his decision has made all the difference. In a sense, the speaker is trying to convince himself that he took the right road. However, the fact that the speaker is still thinking about the other road is an indication that he will forever have a doubt. Truly, this poem is about the other road, the road the speaker did not take. Seeing as how “way leads on to way,” the speaker doubts that he shall ever go back. Therefore, he visits the idea of taking the other road only in his memory.