The Road Not Taken – By Robert Frost

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 as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

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 there

Had worn them really about the same,

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.

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 traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Bengali Translation:

পথটি দুটি ভাগে ভাগ হল এই বনের মাঝে এসে,

এক সাথে দুটি পথেই যাওয়া হবে না ভেবে দুঃখ হয় আমার

কোন পথে যাই, ভাবতে ভাবতে থমকে দাঁড়াই শেষে

আর দেখতে থাকি, একটি পথের শেষটা কোথায় মেশে

দেখি, পথটি বাঁক নিয়েছে যেখানে ঝোঁপ ঝাড়।

এবার একই ভাবে দৃষ্টি দিই অন্যটির দিকে,

পায়ের আঘাতে দুটি পথই হয়েছে কিছুটা খর্ব,

তবু দ্বিতীয়টিতে পায়ের ছাপ দেখাচ্ছিল বেশ ফিকে;

কারণ, নরম সবুজ ঘাস সেসব রেখেছিল সযতনে ঢেকে

এজন্যই হয়ত পথটির মাঝে দেখি সূক্ষ্ণ এক গর্ব।

দুটি পথেই ভোরের আলো ছড়ায় একই ভাবে,

রোদ তার পা মাড়িয়ে সবুজ পাতাগুলোকে করেনি ম্লান।

আহ! প্রথম পথটিতে না হয় আরেকদিন যাওয়া যাবে,

এটি কোন দিকে গিয়েছে তা জেনে নিয়ে ভাল ভাবে।

আদৌ ঐ পথে আমার যাওয়া হবে কিনা, আমি সন্দিহান।

দীর্ঘশ্বাস ফেলি আমি, এই সিদ্ধান্তই নিতে হয় আমাকে অবশেষে,

এই পৃথিবীর কোথাও রয়েছে একটি পথ, যুগ যুগান্তরের,

দুটি ভাগে ভাগ হয়েছে একটি বনের মাঝে এসে,

যে পথ ধরে মানুষ গিয়েছে কম, সেই পথ আমি নিই বেছে–

আর এভাবেই সূচনা হল একটি পার্থক্যের।

Read the quote and answer the question.

(i) The poem begins: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” Give ONE reason why it was hard for the speaker to decide which road to take. (5 points)

Answer: Both roads looked appealing / the roads weren’t all that different / the speaker knew that if he took one road he couldn’t take the other as well.

ii. Why did the speaker choose the road he did? (5 points)

Answer: One road was used more often by people, the other was used far less often. He comes to the conclusion that he will take the road that fewer people have walked on.

iii. “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.” Explain this quote in your own words. Do you agree with the speaker? Explain why or why not. (10 points)

Answer: One decision leads to another one and it is impossible in life to go back to the point when one made the decision. I do agree with this quote because in life one cannot go back in time and undo what has been decided. OR I don’t agree with this quote because it is always / generally possible to correct mistakes one has made.

IV. a. The poem ends: “And that has made all of the difference.” This quote describes how the speaker will relate to his decision later on in life. How does he think he will feel about his decision? (10 points)

Answer: Possible thinking skills: Inferring / Distinguishing different perspectives / Explaining cause and effect His decision has made all the difference to his life. He has chosen the unpopular / nonconformist way in life. He isn’t sure how he feels about this. He says he will be telling this with a sigh because he will feel regret that he will never know what the other road might have offered him. / The sigh may also be one of pride / satisfaction.

v. (a) The last stanza begins: “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence:” a. Why do you think the speaker will be “telling this with a sigh”? (8 points)

Answer: He thinks he will be talking about this decision in the future “with a sigh”. He isn’t sure whether it will be a sigh of regret or a sigh of relief about the choice he has made in life. He says that he has chosen the road fewer people have taken, but he knows that he will always wonder about the road he hasn’t taken.

VI. What connection can we make between this quote and the title of the poem? (7 points)

Answer: This is why the poem is called “The Road Not Taken”. That is how it is in life: we always wonder about the road we did not take, the choice we did not make. That is because we already know where the road has led us. The speaker will also remember how hard/satisfying it was to take the road few people take.

Analysis of Literary Devices in The Road Not Take

Metaphor: There are many metaphors in the poem, like road, fork in the road and yellowwoods. The road in the poem is the metaphor for life, while the fork on the road metaphorically represents the choices we make to determine the course of our lives. Similarly, yellow woods are the metaphor of making decisions during the hard times of a person’s life. These metaphors used in this poem emphasize the importance of the different decisions we make in different situations and their impacts on our lives.

Imagery: Imagery is used to make the readers feel things through their five senses. The poet has used images of the sense of sights, such as leaves and yellowwoods. These images help readers actually to perceive things they are reading. The image of the road helps readers to visualize the road providing a navigation route to the traveler.

Simile: A simile is a device used to compare things with familiar things to let the readers know it easily. There is one simile used in the second stanza as “as just as fair”. It shows how the poet has linked the road less taken to the easy way through life.

Personification: Robert Frost personified the road in the third line of the second stanza. Here, it is stated “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” as if the road is human and that it wants to wear and tear.

Repetition: Frost uses several types of repetition in this poem. The first type of repetition is known as diacope (dahy-ACK-uh-pee), which occurs when a single word is repeated with other words appearing in between. Frost uses this technique to fashion rhetorically powerful phrases such as “way leads on to way” (line 14) and “ages and ages hence” (line 17). Frost also uses a form of repetition known as anaphora.

 

Extra:

1.Where does the traveler find himself? What problem does he face?
Ans. The traveler finds himself standing on a fork in the path. He is in a problem as he must choose one path and is unable to decide which one to choose.

2. Discuss what these phrases mean to you.

(i) a yellow wood
Ans. ‘Yellow wood’ refers to the forest which has withering leaves as in the season of autumn. It represents a world full of aging people.

(ii) it was grassy and wanted wear
Ans. It means that the path had a lot of grass on it. This means that it had not been walked over by many people. It had to be worn out by the steps of the people who walked on it.

(iii) the passing there
Ans. It means that when he walked over the path that he had chosen.

(iv) leaves no step had trodden black
Ans. . It means that no one had walked over the leaves as they were still green. If they had been walked over, they would have turned black.

(v) how way leads on to way
Ans.  It means that as we walk on a path, we come across more options and make choices further. We keep on walking ahead on that way.

 

3.Is there any difference between the two roads as the poet describes them?

(i) in stanzas two and three?
Ans. The two paths were similar. In the beginning, the poet felt that one of them was grassy and had not been walked over by many people, but when he walked on it for some distance, he realized that it was like the other road.

(ii) in the last two lines of the poem?
Ans. Here, again the poet talks of his initial decision when he thought that the roads were different and chose the one that had been walked over by a lesser number of people.