Class 9 English (Beehive) Chapter 1 The Road Not Taken [Poem]

 Summary 

The Road Not Taken, a poem by Robert Frost (1874-1963) is about making choices, and selections that form our life. “The road’ is the symbol of the desire made through us. Many times, we regret the preference made through us but as soon as the preference has been made, it can't be altered. Only the future will make it clear whether the selection or preference was right or wrong. What we need is to make a right choice. 

The poet, whilst traveling on foot in the woods, comes throughout a junction. At this place his direction diverges into two roads, and he has to pick out one of them. Now the poet is in predicament which road he ought to take to continue his journey. He stands there for a lengthy time searching at one of the roads. He finds this street as a crushed track. Many humans had travelled on it. It was carved into the undergrowth and nothing used to be visible beyond it.

The poet then looks at the different road which was once grassy and appeared much less travelled. Being adventurous via nature, he chooses the different street and leaves the first one for some different day, understanding fully well that he will no longer get a chance to go back to it. The poet feels that this preference will make all the difference to his future life. Later the poet needs that he had taken the avenue he left. This is the irony of life. We can't go via all the roads available to us, no count number whosoever we can also wish to. 

The poet now feels that after a while from now he would be looking lower back at this selection with a ‘sigh’. He would be telling that considering he had taken the less travelled road, it made all the difference in his life.

Thus, the poet talks about one of the primary issues of human lifestyles the trouble of making the right preference out of many. We come throughout many preferences or preferences in life. But we cannot take up all the preferences at a time. Neither can we alter the selection as soon as made via us. Therefore, it is vital to make a proper choice because our future is heavily based on it. If we fail to make a proper decision, our life would be full of miseries. But if we are fortunate adequate to make a proper choice, we would be successful.