#53 Class-9 MCQ Test (The Road not taken) (25/04/2020)

Dear students,

Please find the link to attempt the MCQ test from the lesson 'The Road not taken'.

Click on the link.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdyEs45Il9OPRBOndC9-Y9_vlqrlY3jeaUEZN_H8rJPr4Br8g/viewform?usp=sf_link

#52 Class 12 An Elementary school classroom in a slum (25/04/2020)

Paraphrasing of the fourth stanza

Unless,governor, inspector, visitor,

This map becomes their window and these windows

That shut upon their lives like catacombs

Break O break open till they break the town

According to the poet, the condition of these children will not improve till the governor, inspector, Govt. officials and other visitors do not take proper and timely action. They have to take timely action lest their life is permanently limited to the windows of their classroom like catacombs. (इन सभी लोगों को समय रहते इन बच्चों के लिए कोई ठोस कदम उठाना पड़ेगा  कहीं ऐसा ना हो कि इनकी जिन्दगी catacombs यानी underground कब्रिस्तान की तरह इन खिडकियों तक ही सीमित होकर रह जाए). The poet makes a request to all the officials to break these windows (barriers) to help them to break these windows and  reach to the town in open air and sky.

And show the children to green fields, and make their world

Run azure on gold sands and let their tongues

Run naked into books the white and green leaves open

History theirs whose language is the sun.

The poet requests all the officers to help children run in the green fields and enjoy the nature. According to him, these children should be allowed to run on gold sands (on the sea coast) azure (under the open blue sky). They should be helped to read books and study. White and green leaves here are the symbols of different areas of knowledge,  green leaves are the symbol of science while white may be related to other subject. In last line the poet says that only those people find place in the history whose knowledge have power. Language is the symbol of knowledge while the sun is the symbol of power and energy.

#51 The Road not taken questions and answers (24/04/2020)

Home-work

Do the question No.1,2,3,4 given at page No.16 in your notebook. If you face any difficulty, please don't hesitate to ask me in the comment box. I definitely will answer your queries. 

Tomorrow you will get a google form to take the test of the poem 'The Road not taken'.

#50 Class 12 An elementary school classroom in a slum (24/04/2020)

Paraphrasing of the third stanza of the poem

Surely Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example

According to the poet, Shakespeare's picture is of no use to these children. It is the symbol of high quality literature but they are struggling even for basic facilities. The map is also a bad example for them as it is the symbol of world for them. Their world is limited to their windows only.

With Ships and sun and love tempting them to steal

The pictures of ships, sun and love tempt (attract) these children. They also want to live that life.

For lives that slyly turn in these cramped holes

From fog to endless night.

According to the poet,  slum children want to live the life depicted in pictures. But their life is limited to their cramped holes (uncomfortable small homes) . A very poor life has entered into their homes stealthily which  starts at fog and end also at night. Fog and endless night both are the symbols of being unclear and clueless. Fog and endless night are two poles of their life. We can say there is no clarity about their future.

On their slag heap, these children 

Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel

With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones

According to the poet, these children live in the houses which are made of slag (waste material). They are so malnourished that their bones also can be seen through their skin. The lenses of their steel glasses have been mended  which look like glasses after been hit by stones.

All of their time and space are foggy slum

So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.

Their time and space, everything is limited to their slum only. The slum is also full of fog that means the slum has unclear future. This foggy slum has blotted (barred) their  dream world. This slum is a hurdle in life as big as doom (misfortune).

#49 The Road not taken (23/04/2020)

Paraphrasing of the last stanza

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence;

According to Frost, he has a doubt in his mind whether he will be able to come back or not. But, it he comes back after ages he will be telling to the people with a sigh about his decision/choice.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

According to Frost, when he returns back he will be telling with a sigh about his decision. This sigh may be of happiness or remorse (पश्चाताप). But he will be telling people with pride that two roads diverged in a forest and he had taken the road which was less travelled and that had made difference in his life.

Special note-- Roads in this poem are the symbols of choices/decisions which we make in our life. Our decisions make a great impact on our lives. Generally we follow our elders' experiences. We walk on that path which they have already walked on. But Robert Frost walked on that path which was travelled by less people.In this poem Robert Frost is talking of his decision of coming back to America. `At the beginning when he did not get success as a poet, he migrated to England. There he became very famous as a poet. Returning back to America from there was not a wise decision but he took that risk and became a great poet of America.

Message--- The message is that we should not join sheep-walk. It is always not necessary to follow others. Sometimes we should choose the different ways also as per our interest. There may be hurdles in the way but the success coming out of that is very sweet. Even if we do not succeed, we may get good experience. 

#48 Class 12 An elementary school classroom in a slum(23/04/2020)

Paraphrasing II stanza

And yet, for these children, these windows, not this map their world,

Map is the symbol of world. But for these slum children this map is not the world. For them, the windows of their classroom are the world because they have not gone out of these windows.


Where all their future is painted with a fog.

For these children, the world is limited to their classroom windows only. Their future is painted with a fog means nothing is clear about their future.

A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky

Far far from rivers, capes and stars of words.

Their world is limited to a narrow street where their slum is. The lead sky has sealed their street. The sky is full of lead because of pollution. They are very far away from rivers and other water bodies. These rivers and capes appear to them like distant stars which have been mentioned in their books only.

#47 Class 9 The Road not Taken (22/04/2020)

Paraphrasing of the third stanza

    And both that morning equally lay

  In leaves no step had trodden black.

Both the roads were looking appealing to him.He was attracted to the second road which was 

full of leaves. No one had trodden on the leaves which were lying on the roads.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

The poet decided to go for the second road. He kept the first road for another day.


Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

He knew very well that he did not know anything about that way. He had a doubt also in his mind whether he would come back or not.