NCERT Solutions class-9 English Comm P CH02 The Road Not Taken

Page No: 66
7. On the basis of your understanding of the poem, answer the following questions by ticking the correct choice.
(a) In the poem, a traveler 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 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 realize his dreams
Ans: (i) the tough choices people make 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
Ans: (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
Ans: (iii) hesitation and thoughtfulness

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8. Answer the following questions briefly.
(i) Describe the two roads that the author finds.
Ans: One road was a beaten track. Many people had walked on it. It was lost in the small shrubs. The other road was grassy and unspoiled.

(ii) Which road does the speaker choose?
Ans: The poet chose the road thatwas less travelledbecause it had the better claim. It was grassy and not many people had used it.

(iii) Which road would you choose? Why?
Ans: I will chose the less travelled roadbecause I want to judge myself test myself and check my capability. I like adventure and would want to explore new facts. I am always enthusiastic for venturing into something absolutely new, uncommon and unknown to the rest of the world.

(iv) Does the speaker seem happy about his decision?
Ans: There is a certain ambiguity here. The speaker seems happy and satisfied when he says – “And that has made all the difference.” However, the sigh just before this makes us question his happiness.

(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?
Ans: When the poet came to the cross roads, he had a choice. He could take the road travelled by many or he could take the road less travelled. He decided to take the road less travelled knowing fully well that once the choicewas made, it was permanent and there was no turning back. That ‘choice’ he had made, according to him, has changed his life. It may have brought him success, happiness and fulfillment. The choice that he made at that time affected his future. That choice made all the difference to his life.

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9. Find the rhyme scheme of the poem.
Ans: The rhyme scheme of Poem is a b a a b

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Page No: 67

10. Fill in the blanks to complete the following paragraph that deals with the theme of the poem. Use the words given in the box below:

decision	sorry	foresee	choices
pleasant	direction	fork	trail
rewarding	chance	wonder	both

The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is about the ______that one makes in life. It tells about a man who comes to a ______in the road he is travelling upon. He feels ______that he cannot travel ______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 ______he wishes to take in life. As he thinks about his ______he looks down one path as far as he can see trying to ______ 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 ______. At this point he concludes that the trail that has been less travelled on would be more ______ 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 w on’t get a ______ 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 ______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.
Ans: The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is about the choices that one makes in life. It tells about a man who comes to a fork in the road he is travelling upon. He feels sorry that he cannot travel both 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 direction he wishes to take in life. As he thinks about his decision he looks down one path as far as he can see trying to foresee what life will be like if he walks that path. He then gazes at the other trail and decides the outcome of going down that path would be just as pleasant . At this point he concludes that the trail that has been less travelled on would be more rewarding 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 chance 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 wonder 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.

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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

• ______
• ______
• ______
• ______

Ans: Stage
Flowers
Colours
Dream
Journey

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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 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 toEngland or after? Can you quote a line or two from the poem that can support youranswer?
(f) Do you think Frost finally became popular in America as a poet?
Ans: (a) In 1912Frost sailed with his family to Great Britain. This decision is considered as “momentous decision” made by Robert Frost. Before this, Frost was a failing New Hampshire farmer as well as a part-time poet. This was the year when Frost give up farming and started his career as poet. The family moved toGreat Britain, where Frost met many other poets and successfully set his career on the path toimmortality.
(b) Robert Frost was 42 when this poem published. However, we cannot assume that this poem is actually autobiographical. Frost created his speaker for the poem to speak on his behalf. We can guess the age of the speaker based on the evidence given in the poem. The only clue we have to the speaker’s age are the words “ages and ages hence.” This implies that he will be considering the effects of his decision far down the road years into the future. So we would expect him to be a relatively young man at the time of the decision.
(c) He was going to another country where he had no contact. Also, he give up his traditional occupation. If he fails in his poetic career then it is very hard for him to survive. Therefore, the decision was so difficult.
(d) The poem didn’t make it clear whether the road was difficult or not. We have only knew about the condition of the road is that it “was grassy and wanted wear.” That just means that it was not a frequently traveled road; it doesn’t tell us how difficult it was.
(e) The poem is written aftersailing from the USA toEngland. We can understood through his line “…and that has made all the difference” which means Frost had traveled the road which changed his life.
(f) Yes, Frost finally became popular in America as a poet.