NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Beehive Poem Chapter 1 - The Road Not Taken

TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS (SOLVED)

Q1. On the basis of your understanding of the poem, answer the following questions by ticking the correct choice.

(a) In the poem, a traveller comes to a fork in the road and needs to decide which way to go to continue his journey. Figuratively, the choice of the road denotes _________. 

(i) the tough choices people face while deciding on the road of life.
(ii) the time wasted on deciding what to do
(iii) life is like a forest
(iv) one must travel a lot to realize his dreams

Ans : (i) the tough choices people face while deciding on the road of life.

(b) The poet writes, ‘Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.’ The word ‘diverged’ means ________.
(i) appeared
(ii) curved
(iii) branched off
(iv) continued on

Ans : (iii) branched off

(c) The tone of the speaker in the first stanza is that of ____________.
(i) excitement
(ii) anger
(iii) hesitation and thoughtfulness
(iv) sorrow

Ans : (iii) hesitation and thoughtfulness

(d) Select the quote that captures the central idea of the poem most appropriately.

(i) We often confuse what we wish for with what is.

(ii) I have always been much better at asking questions than knowing what the answers were.

(iii) You are free to make whatever choice you want, but you are not free from the consequences of the choice.

(iv) To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.

Ans. (iii) You are free to make whatever choice you want, but you are not free from the consequences of the choice.

Q2. Answer the following questions briefly :

Q3. Write the rhyme scheme of the poem.

Ans : The rhyme scheme of the poem is as follows :

a   b  a  a   b
c   d  c  c   d
e   f  e  e    f
g   h  g  g   h

Q4. Fill in the blanks to complete the following paragraph that gives the theme of the poem. Use the words given in the box below :

The poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost is about the (i) _________ that one makes in life. It tells about a man who comes to a (ii) _________ in the road he is travelling upon. He feels (iii) _________ that he cannot travel (iv) _________ paths as he must choose one. Frost uses this fork in the road to represent a point in the man’s life where he has to choose the (v) _________ he wishes to take in life. As he thinks about his (vi) _________ he looks down one path as far as he can see trying to (vii) _________ what life will be like if he walks that path. He then gazes at the other and decides the outcome of going down that path would be just as (viii) _________. At this point, he concludes that the (ix) _________ that has been less travelled on would be more (x) _________ when he reaches the end of it. The man then decides that he will save the other path for another day, even though he knows that one path leads to another and that he won’t get a (xi) _________ to go back. The man then says that he will be telling this story with a sigh some day in the future suggesting that he will (xii) _________ what life would have been like if he had chosen the more walked path even though the path he chose has made all the difference.

Ans : 

(i) choices        
(ii) fork
(iii) sorry
(iv) both
(v) direction
(vi) decision
(vii) foresee
(viii) rewarding
(ix) trail
(x) pleasant
(xi) chance
(xii) wonder

Q5. Roads are fascinating as metaphors for life, change, journeys, partings, adventure, etc. or simply as roads. This is probably why they, and all their attendant images, have permeated art, literature, and song. In the poem, Frost uses the fork in the road as a metaphor for the choices we make in life. Thus the roads are, in fact, two alternative ways of life. What other nouns could be used to represent life?

Ans :