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The Road Not Taken Poem Summary Analysis and Explanation
About the Poet Robert Frost
Robert Frost (1874-1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American. He became one of the United States rare “public literary figures, almost an artistic institution.”
| Poet Name | Robert Frost |
| Born | 26 March 1874, San Francisco, California, United States |
| Died | 29 January 1963, Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
| Poems | The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice Summary |
| Awards | Robert Frost Medal, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry |
| Quotes | Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. |
The Road Not Taken Introduction
The Road Not Taken, a poem by Robert Frost is about making choices, and choices that shape our life. “The road’ is the symbol of the choice made by us. Many times, we regret the choice made by us but once the choice has been made, it cannot be altered. Only the future will make it clear whether the decision or choice was right or wrong. What we need is to make a right choice.
The Road Not Taken Summary of the Poem
The poet, while travelling on foot in the woods, comes across a junction where his path diverges into two roads, and he has to choose one of them. Now the poet is in dilemma which road he should take to continue his journey. He stands there for a long time looking at one of the roads. He finds this road as a beaten track. Many people had travelled on it. It was carved into the undergrowth and nothing was visible beyond it.
The poet then looks at the other road which was grassy and seemed less travelled. Being adventurous by nature, he chooses the other road and leaves the first one for some other day, knowing fully well that he will not get a chance to go back to it. The poet feels that this choice will make all the difference to his future life. Later the poet wishes that he had taken the road he left. This is the irony of life. We cannot go through all the roads available to us, no matter whosoever we may wish to.
The poet now feels that after ages from now he would be looking back at this decision with a ‘sigh’. He would be telling that since he had taken the less travelled road, it made all the difference in his life.
Thus, the poet talks about one of the basic problems of human life the problem of making the right choice out of many. We come across many alternatives or choices in life. But we cannot take up all the choices at a time. Neither can we alter the decision once made by us. Therefore, it is important to make a right choice because our future is heavily dependent on it. If we fail to make a right decision, our life would be full of miseries. But if we are fortunate enough to make a right choice, we would be successful.
FAQs on The Road Not Taken Summary
Q1. What is the summary of the road not taken?
Ans: In the poem – ‘The Road Not Taken’, the road symbolizes our life. The poet says that the path that we don’t choose in our life is ‘the road not taken’. He describes his feelings about that choice that he had left in the past. The path which we have chosen, decides our future, our destination.
Q2. What is the meaning of road not taken?
Ans: In “The Road Not Taken,” the meaning of the poem is about a person having to choose between two roads. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” and the speaker is torn between which road is the best choice. It is in the autumn of the speaker’s life. He has to choose which road to travel.
Q3. What is the main idea of the road not taken?
Ans: Robert Frost’s central idea is his poem “Road Not Taken” is that by choosing a path that most people don’t, a man can make a big difference in his life. In this poem, a man came to a place where he had to make a choice between two roads.
Q4. What is the form of the road not taken?
Ans: Form. “The Road Not Taken” consists of four stanzas of five lines. The rhyme scheme is ABAAB; the rhymes are strict and masculine, with the notable exception of the last line (we do not usually stress the -ence of difference). There are four stressed syllables per line, varying on an iambic tetrameter base.
What is the summary of road not taken?
The Road Not Taken Summary is a poem that describes the dilemma of a person standing at a road with diversion. This diversion symbolizes real-life situations. Sometimes, in life too there come times when we have to take tough decisions. We could not decide what is right or wrong for us.
What is the main theme of The Road Not Taken?
The major theme in Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” is about making choices. The speaker in the poem in traveling and comes upon a cross roads or a fork-in-the-road. Here he or she much decide which way to continue traveling.
What is the summary of road not taken Class 9?
The Summary
‘The Road Not Taken’ is an autobiographical poem.; Once, the poet come across a junction when his path diverged into two and he had to take a decision of which road to take. He stood there for a Long time and gave a serious thought to each road. Then he decided to take the road which was less travelled.
What is central idea of the poem?
A poem’s core concept is the subject of the poem, or ‘what it’s about’ if you like. While many shy away from poetry being ‘about’ something, at the end of the day, as it was written, the poet had something in mind, and that something, whatever it was or may have been, is the central concept.