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It is now widely considered to be one of the most popular works of American literature. “The Road Not Taken” was originally published in The Atlantic in 1915 along with two other poems from Frost. It’s a commentary on the self-deception we practice when constructing the story of our own lives.” In the final stanza, we can’t know whether the speaker is sighing with contentedness or regret as he justifies the choices he’s made and shapes the narrative of his life.įrost wrote the poem to tease his chronically indecisive friend, Edward Thomas, who misinterpreted the meaning and enlisted in the military shortly thereafter, only to be killed two years later in WWI. In fact, the critic David Orr deemed Frost’s work “the most misread poem in America,” writing in The Paris Review: “This is the kind of claim we make when we want to comfort or blame ourselves by assuming that our current position is the product of our own choices… The poem isn’t a salute to can-do individualism. The Road not taken Class 9 CBSE Class 9 English Poem 1 The Road Not Taken detailed explanation of the lesson along with meanings of difficult words and literary devices used in the poem. But as Frost liked to warn his listeners, “You have to be careful of that one it’s a tricky poem-very tricky.” In actuality, the two roads diverging in a yellow wood are “really about the same,” according to Frost, and are equally traveled and quite interchangeable. The Road Not Taken Summary Class 9 NCERT English Beehive Book Poem 1, Explanation and Question Answers.

This interpretation has long been propagated through countless song lyrics, newspaper columns, and graduation speeches. Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” is often interpreted as an anthem of individualism and nonconformity, seemingly encouraging readers to take the road less traveled.
