Short Questions (2 Marks)
Question 1 : Describe the two paths that the poet finds. Which road did he choose?
Answer : The poet comes across a path splitting into two in the middle of a forest. One path is well used, whereas the other one does not appear to be so at the first glance. This therefore, looks more promising to him and so he decides to take the second one.
Question 2 : Why did the poet think that the other road had a better claim? What trait of his personality is revealed by his choice?
Answer : The poet thought that the other road had a better claim because it was not much used. He is reluctant to follow the tradition of using the same road that other people have previously used. This reveals him to be an adventurous person.
Question 3 : What do the two roads represent?
Answer : The two roads represent the dilemma a person faces having to make a decision. The results of taking a decision one way or the other usually are different. The decision affects further events related to it.
Question 4 : What does the poet promise himself, although he knows he can’t keep his promise?
Answer : The poet promises himself that he would come back some other time and take the often travelled road, although knowing that he won’t be able to keep his promise. It is because, once a decision is taken, it leads to other decisions. He knows that he will not be able to come back and change his decision.
Question 5 : Was the poet satisfied with his decision of taking the second road? Why or why not?
Answer : The poet’s sigh indicates that he was not satisfied with his decision of taking the second road, as it made all the difference in his life. He thinks if he had chosen the worn out road, probably his life would have been different.
Question 6 : What is the significance of the fact that the road ‘bent in the undergrowth’?
Answer : The bend in the undergrowth obstructs the vision of the traveller and he can’t see where the road leads. This image expresses the idea that the future is unknown, mysterious and surprising; one can’t know what it will bring.
Question 7 : The poet takes a long time to make his decision. What is he thinking about?
Answer : The poet knows making the right choice is an important decision. He wants to choose the road that is best for him but he’s not sure which one is that. Each time he looks at the two diverging paths, they look different.
Question 8 : “I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
What is the speaker saying here?
Answer : The speaker is saying here that whatever choice we make in life influences what our life will be like, for better of for worse, as our choices influence our future life.
Question 5 : “Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.”
What does the poet mean here?
Answer : The poet here means that when you make decisions, one decision leads to another and you can’t go back. One decision takes you in one direction and you can’t change what you have already decided.
Long Questions (8 Marks)
Question 1 : Do you agree that decision making is an important factor of people’s life? Support your answer with context to the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’.
Answer : As the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ broadly emphasizes the role of decision-making in one’s life. When one has many choices, it is very crucial to make the right choice. Right decision will be beneficial to the individual in the long term. But right decision for any individual can be different for different people. The poet or traveller sighs when he refers to the decision he has made. The sigh may indicate two different attitudes. It can be a sigh of satisfaction which shows that he is looking back at his choice with satisfaction and relief, that he is happy with his decision. It may also be interpreted as a sigh of regret which means he is sorry he made that choice and perhaps it would have been better for him if he had chosen the other path.
Question 2 : How does the poet connect nature to the human situation in the poem?
Answer : The poem starts by describing something in nature: a woods or forest during the autumn season. The woods has a path diverging into two which the poet comes across. The poet talks about which road to choose. The choice of roads connects to the human situation where people have to make decisions in life and can’t come back to the same point in life or know what the future will be on taking a certain decision. This is a dilemma which people face regularly in life. Sometimes one decision leads to another and so it is impossible to retrace your steps.
Question 3 : Do you agree that the poem is about regret? Why or why not ? Support your answer with information from the poem.
Answer : I agree that the poem is about regret because the poem tells us that, if you choose one thing you have to give up something else and that makes you feel sorry. We can see this by the title of the poem, which talks about ‘The Road Not Taken’, meaning that the speaker is sorry about something he didn’t do. It can also be regret because the port would never what wat he had missed by not taking the other road. Because the poet could not choose both ways, he is sorry about it.
Question 4 : How is the theme of the poem applicable to our lives?
Answer : Decision-making plays an important role in our lives. Making a decision is not always easy, as we do not know whether any decision taken will be beneficial to us in the long run or not. Yet we have to make decisions which we cannot retract from. As we cannot go back and change our decisions, we have to be very wise and careful while making nay decision. So we must visualis the possible consequences of our decisions and then make the decision that looks the best decision as far as possible.