Comparing The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost

Poets often bring in similar themes and aspects to several of their poems. Due to this, many of their poems may end up having similarities. For example, Robert Frost’s poems “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” have an abundance of similarities. Although these poems may be about two different scenarios, and written years apart, they still contain these comparable aspects. In both poems, the speaker needs to make a choice, or has made a choice, and is reflecting on it. In the first poem, the speaker is looking back on a choice they made where they chose a path in the wood, and in the second poem, the speaker decides whether to leave the woods or to stay and watch the snow fall. Frost also exercises particular literary
These two poems are no exception. “The Road Not Taken” appears to take place in a forest in autumn due to the fact that the speaker calls attention to the “yellow wood,” (Frost, “The Road Not Taken” 1). However, the second poem takes place during even winter, implied when the speaker mentions the snow falling and how it is “The darkest evening of the year,” (Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” 8). Imagery in a poem is utilized to enhance the visual experience of a poem, and create a scene that the reader can see. Creating these images is a writer’s way of showing the audience the story before them, and Frost here is able to create the story of these two speakers and the choices they make while surrounded by nature. When Frost creates these images, the reader can see what the speaker is seeing, and may better understand the rest of the poem once they can put themselves in the setting. When a reader can see themselves at the fork in the road or in the snowy woods, they can feel the decision the speaker has to make. Imagery creates a stronger connection to the poem for the
Whenever a line repeats, an emphasis is put on this line. The line protrudes from the rest of the poem, and it will be increasingly prominent in their mind after the poem is finished. Usually, when a writer repeats a line in their poem, they expect it to stick out to the reader for a reason. This is true for both of Frost’s poems. In “The Road Not Taken” the first line, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” returns once again in the last stanza, except with the omission of the word yellow (Frost, “The Road Not Taken” 1). This draws the reader to the choice that the speaker has made. In this first poem, the choice, to follow one path instead of the other, has already happened, and the line returns to remind the reader of the previously made choice. However, even though “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” also has a repeated line, it is for a different purpose. Here, the last two lines of the last stanza are the same, and also break the rhyme scheme of the poem. The last two lines of this poem signify the speaker’s selection, which is to leave the woods and carry on with his journey, and the last two lines emphasize his reasons for doing so, being that has “Miles to go before I sleep, /And miles to go before I sleep,” (Frost, “Stopping by Woods” 15-16). In the first poem, the choice is the focus of the poem, but here the focus is reason why he makes this