The Road Not Taken Summary Class 9 English Chapter 1

Summary

The poem presents a dilemma that every man faces in his life. One day, going his way the poet comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go to continue his journey. He stands there for long. Then he decides to choose the road, which was grassy and needed ‘to wear’. He feels this choice will make all the difference to his future life. He decides to try the other road, some other time, knowing fully well that he will not get a chance to go back to it. Later he wishes that he had taken the other road. This is the irony of life, we cannot travel on all the available roads, no matter however we may wish to.

The poet feels that after ages from now he would be looking at this decision with a ‘sigh’. He would tell that since he had taken the road less travelled, it made all the difference.

Thus the poet speaks of the basic problems of making the right choice. Many alternatives are available at the time of choice but man has to select one. It is only the future that will reveal, whether the decision is wrong or not. After taking decisions we cannot undo them, we can only regret them. Even if we wish, we cannot start all over again.