THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

OUR CHOICES DEFINE US

BEGGAR or YOUNG or MALE OR LITERATE or
• Everyone gets to MILLIONAIRE OLD FEMALE ILLITERATE

choose
• Older days to present times- privileged to have ability to choose.
• Exercise the right to choose with caution.
• Good choices today- good future tomorrow.
• Thoughtful and far sighted decisions.
 CHOICES HAVE DRAWBACKS TOO
•Options with choice:
ACCEPT OR REJECT

•Choices are the hinges of destiny.

•Ever wondered about the option you

leave out/discard???

•Could it have offered you better???

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
ROBERT FROST
ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
• American Poet- poetry first published in
England.
• Been to Harvard and Dartmouth
College – no degree. BUT 40 honorary
degrees AND 4 Pulitzer Prizes.
• Poetry dwells on Rural life.
• Went to England- two volumes of
poetry published- returned to America
before WW1.
• Taught for 40 years at school/college
and shaped the school’s writing
program.
The Road not Taken : An Overview
• This well-known poem is about making choices, and the choices
that shape us.
• Robert Frost is an American poet who writes simply, but
insightfully, about common, ordinary experiences.
• In the poem - ‘The Road Not Taken’, the road symbolizes our
life. The poet says that the path that we don’t choose in our life
is ‘the road not taken’.
The Road not Taken : An Overview
• He describes his feelings about that choice that he had left in the past. The
path which we have chosen, decides our future, our destination
• The important message that the poet wants to give is that the choice that
we make has an impact on our future and if we make a wrong choice, we
regret it but cannot go back on it. So, we must be wise while making
choices.
• STRUCTURE: This simple looking poem, has a traditional rhyme scheme of
ABAAB which helps keep the lines tight, whilst the use of enjambment (where one
line runs into the next with no punctuation) keeps the sense flowing.
BRIEF EXPLANATION: STANZA 1
1.Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
2.And sorry I could not travel both
3.And be one traveller, long I stood
4.And looked down one as far as I could
5. To where it bent in the undergrowth;
The speaker, walking through a forest whose leaves have turned yellow in autumn,
comes to a fork in the road. The speaker, regretting that he or she is unable to
travel by both roads (since he or she is, after all, just one person), stands at the
fork in the road for a long time and tries to see where one of the paths
leads. However, the speaker can't see very far because the forest is dense and the
road is not straight.
REFERENCE TO CONTEXT (IN NOTEBOOK)
• Explain 'yellow wood'.
The poet is standing amidst a jungle where the leaves of the trees have
yellowed suggesting that it is the autumn season.
• The speaker is feeling sorry because____.
he can't travel both roads.
• Why is the poet confused?
The poet seems to be confused about which road will have more
potential. He is not able to make a decision. 
• Where is the poet standing?
at a divergence in the woods.
BRIEF EXPLANATION: STANZA 2
6.Then took the other, just as fair,
7. And having perhaps the better claim,
8.Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
9. Though as for that the passing there
10. Had worn them really about the same.

The speaker takes the other path, judging it to be just as good a choice as the
first, and supposing that it may even be the better option of the two, since it is
grassy and looks less worn than the other path. Though, now that the speaker has
actually walked on the second road, he or she thinks that in reality the two roads
must have been more or less equally worn-in.
REFERENCE TO CONTEXT (IN NOTEBOOK)
• Why did the poet take the other road ?
The poet took the other road because he thought that it was more challenging to
travel on it as only a few had used (trodden on) it.

• What did the poet discover while travelling on the other road ?
The poet discovered, while travelling on the other road, that the second was
almost equally used as the first one.

• What do the given lines suggest about the speaker ? 

The given lines suggest that the speaker loved challenges and difficulties.
RECAPITULATION- STANZA 1
LITERAL MEANING
• Poet reaches a forked road.
• Has to decide which path to
take.
• Only person there, couldn’t
consult anyone.
• Can’t travel on both, has to
make a choice.
• Tries to see as far as he can on
the road but can get a limited
view.
INNER MEANING
Two roads diverged in a
• A situation in the life of any
yellow wood,
And sorry I could not person where he has to make
travel both decisions from the options
And be one traveller, offered to him.
long I stood
• Has to decide how do go
And looked down one as
far as I could ahead in life. Can’t take
To where it bent in the counsel as everyone's
situations are different.
undergrowth;
• Every option gives us just a
peep in it- know reality when
we get into it’s tracks.
 RECAPITULATION- STANZA 2
LITERAL MEANING
• Poet takes the second road-
though both roads look same.
• Feels it is a better option as it
has a lot of grass.
• Could offer him more.
• Realizes after walking on the
2nd road that its not as smooth
as he expected.
Then took the other, just as INNER MEANING
fair,
• Poet opts for the 2nd road- the
And having perhaps the
better claim, option other than the most
Because it was grassy and sought after one.
wanted wear; • Feels it has a better future to
Though as for that the
passing there offer him with lesser people
taking that path.
Had worn them really about
the same • Once on the track- feels that it is
worn out too like the first option
would have been- needs his hard
work.
BRIEF EXPLANATION: STANZA 3
11.And both that morning equally lay
12.In leaves no step had trodden black.
13.Oh, I kept the first for another day!
14.Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
15. I doubted if I should ever come back.

Reinforcing this statement, the speaker recalls that both roads were covered in
leaves, which had not yet been turned black by foot traffic. The speaker exclaims
that he or she is in fact just saving the first road, and will travel it at a later
date, but then immediately contradicts him or herself with the acknowledgement
that, in life, one road tends to lead onward to another, so it's therefore unlikely
that he or she will ever actually get a chance to return to that first road. 
REFERENCE TO CONTEXT (IN NOTEBOOK)
• Which road does the poet choose ?
The poet took the second road, the less travelled one.

• Why did the poet choose the second road over the first road ?
The poet chose the second road over the first thinking that he would come to it
some other day. Yet, he was very doubtful that he would ever be able to come back
to it someday. Also, the second road offered him better possibilities.

• Find a word from the extract that means ‘crushed’.

Trodden.
BRIEF EXPLANATION: STANZA 4
16. I shall be telling this with a sigh
17. Somewhere ages and ages hence;
18. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
19. I took the one less travelled by,
20. And that has made all the difference

The speaker imagines him or herself in the distant future, recounting, with a sigh,
the story of making the choice of which road to take. Speaking as though looking
back on his or her life from the future, the speaker states that he or she was faced
with a choice between two roads and chose to take the road that was less
travelled, and the consequences of that decision have made all the difference in
his or her life.
REFERENCE TO CONTEXT (IN NOTEBOOK)
• How did the poet make his choice about the roads ?
The poet took the road which was less travelled as it was grassy and less worn.

• What had made a lot of difference in the poet’s life ?

The poet’s decision- there is no clear statement if he made a fortune or regretted his
decision – dilemma that if he would have taken the other road, his life would have
been different.
THEME:
CHOICES AND UNCERTAINITIES MAKE LIFE
INTERESTING
 CHOICES AND UNCERTAINITIES MAKE LIFE INTERESTING

• Choices offered to poet function as extended metaphor for all choices that we
make in life.
• Regrets the reality of not being able to take in both options.
• Every choice involves a loss of opportunity.
• Every choice is made with incomplete information.
• Poet’s choice is made on guess work- we too only anticipate what can work best
for us.
• Announces that he has saved the first road for another day.
• Reality sets in- if I should ever come back.
• Ends with imagining the future – bright one.
POETIC DEVICES
• Enjambment is a literary device in which a line of poetry carries its idea or
thought over to the next line without a grammatical pause. ... This means that the
thought or idea “steps over” the end of a line in a poem and into the beginning of
the next line.

.
 POETIC DEVICES

• METAPHOR:
There are many metaphors in the poem like road, fork in the road and yellow woods. The
road in the poem is the metaphor of life, while the fork on the road metaphorically
represents the choices we make to determine the course of our lives. Similarly, yellow
woods are the metaphor of making decisions during the hard times of a person’s life. These
metaphors used in this poem emphasize the importance of different decisions we make in
different situations and their impacts on our lives.
• IMAGERY:
 Imagery is used to make the readers feel things through their five senses. The poet has
used images of the sense of sights such as leaves, yellow woods and  These images help
readers to actually perceive things they are reading. The image of the road helps readers to
visualize the road providing a navigation route to the traveler.
 POETIC DEVICES
• SIMILE:
A simile is a device used to compare things with familiar things to let the readers
know it easily. There is one simile used in the second stanza such as “as just as
fair”. It shows how the poet has linked the road less taken to the easy way through
life.
• PERSONIFICATION:
Robert Frost has personified road in the third line of the second stanza. Here, it is
stated “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” as if the road is human, and that
it wants to wear and tear.
LITERARY DEVICES

• Anaphora: Anaphora is a figure of speech in which words repeat at the beginning

of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences. Eg. ‘and’ repeated at the beginning of
lines 2, 3 and 4.
• Refrain: ‘Two roads diverged in a wood’- this sentence is repeated in stanzas 1 and
4
• Alliteration : The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or
stressed syllables.
• Repetition: A literary device that involves using the same word or phrase over
and over again in a piece of writing or speech
LONG QUESTION: (IN NOTEBOOK)

WRITE A DETAILED NOTE ON THE

THEME OF THE POETRY.
ACTIVITY: Use the graphic organizer below to help you find clues about the
setting of the poem. After looking over the clues, what can you infer about
each stanza? You may not find an answer for each column, but you should be
able to make an inference in the last column. Some answers have been filled
in for you.
REFERENCE LINKS:

• Walt Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road”:

https://youtu.be/xxUTe1lWY6s
• Recitation of the road not taken:
https://youtu.be/KUaQgRiJukA
• Explanation of “The Road not Taken”:
https://youtu.be/02drFdTfqYQ
WRITING SKILL: INFORMAL LETTER

•  also referred to as a friendly letter, is

a personal letter written to friends
or relatives.
• While writing an informal letter, one
can afford to be friendly, and make
use of personal or emotional tone.
INFORMAL LETTER
FORMAT:
OWN ADDRESS (In two lines)
_______________________
DATE: NOTE:
_______________________
GREETINGS LEAVE A LINE AT
INTRODUCTORY PARA
BODY OF THE LETTER
PARAGRAPHCHANG
CONCLUSION E
SIGNATURE
INFORMAL LETTER
• Write a letter to your friend talking about the
hobby you took up during the quarantine period.
Mention about the factors that brought to this
decision how it can make you a better person. You
are Alex/Alexa of 27/B, Starlite Society, Jaipur.