AMITY INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, MAYUR VIHAR

ENGLISH THE ROAD NOT TAKEN ASSIGNMENT CLASS 9

RTC 1
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.

a) What does ‘both’ stand for?

b) What did the poet decide?
c) What does “leaves no step had trodden black” imply?
d) Explain “I should ever come back”?

RTC 2
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both,
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

a) Where was the poet standing?

b) What do the two roads symbolize?
c) Why did the poet feel sorry?
d) Explain “Yellow wood”.

RTC 3
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.

a) “took the other”, What does the other refer to?

b) Why did the other road have a better claim?
c) What is the rhyming scheme of the poem?
d) Identify the poetic device employed in the above lines.

RTC 4

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 travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

a) What do the two diverging roads symbolise?

b) What impact has the path trodden by the poet made on his life?
c) Is it a positive or negative impact?
d) Why shall the poet be narrating the incident with a sigh?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Q1. Describe the two roads that the author comes across.
Q2. Which road does the speaker choose? Why?
Q3. The poet kept the other road for another day. Was he able to travel back on that road? Explain.
Q4. Why does the poet regret when he reached a fork in the road where it divided into two?
Q5. “I doubted if I should ever come back”. Why does the poet doubt he should ever come back?

LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS

Q1. What images does the poet use to compare the two roads?
Q2. What does ‘road’ symbolize in the poem? How important is it to take a right decision in life?
Q3. What does the poem “The Road Not Taken” teach us?