The Road Not Taken Summary Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 1

Point Wise Summary

• The poet was standing at a place where two roads/ paths ‘diverged in a yellow wood’.
• He was sorry that he couldn’t travel both at the same time.
• He looked down one as far as he could till it bent away in the undergrowth.
• The other road was just as fair and perhaps presented a better claim.
• The second road was grassy, less frequented by travellers and ‘wanted wear’.
• The poet had to make a choice and he resolved the dilemma.
• He chose the second road and `kept the first for another day’.
• The poet had a doubt that he would never get a chance to travel on the first road again.
• The choice had been made and it made all the difference in his life.
• It was very difficult to say whether the choice was right or wrong on the spur of the moment
• But the poet neither seems to be very happy nor very sad with his choice and leaves the end open to the readers and their choices.

Full Summary

The poet talks about two roads in the poem, in fact, the two roads are two alternative ways of life. Robert frost wants to tell that the choice we make in our lives has a far-reaching result. The poem presents a dilemma that every man faces in his life. One day while walking in a wooded area full of trees with yellow leaves, the poet comes to a fork in the place and he has to decide which road he should take. He stands there for long and starts debating over the choice. He looks at the first road as far as he can see, till it bends in the undergrowth. It seemed to have been travelled by many people. Then he looked at the second road. It was grassy and wanted wear means less travelled. The poet is tempted to walk on it. He keeps on thinking for a long time and comes to the conclusion that he cannot walk on both. That is the irony of life. We cannot travel all the available roads no matter how much we may wish to. However, he decides to take the second path with the intention of walking on the first any other day in the future. At the same time, he knows that the chances of his returning that way are very less. He also knows the manner in which one path leads on to the other. Finally, the poet started moving on the second road. Then the poem shifts to the last stanza and the poet become completely philosophical and talk as if he has travelled for a long era and looks back at the choices that he made in life and their consequences. Now he feels that life has been completely different. He feels that his life has been very different from the common people because he has always been tempted to take the path not generally followed by others. Here he advises doing something different also. It shows the poet as an adventurous man ready to take risks in life which everyone should be like.