The Road Not Taken
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Lee Frost is one of the most eminent as well as misunderstood pieces of American poetry. The speaker stands in the woods debating two splitting paths. This happens in a yellow wood (indicating the setting is autumn). Both paths are “worn about the same.” The speaker muses at the fork for a long while until he finally chooses the second road, saving for the first road for another day. In the future he will reminisce about his decision, claiming to have taken the road less traveled (although both paths described as equal), and justifying his choice of random road number two by stating it “made all the difference” (20) in his life. Most people interpret the poem as inspiration to be an outsider “travel the road less
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There are four stanzas, each containing 5 lines. There is an aspect of inversion present “long I stood” (3), normally said as I stood long. A syllable pattern stays constant throughout the poem. For instance, notice the first line in each stanza has nine syllables.
Just like a song, this poem has rhythm. The rhythm is iambic which implies that there is a quiet syllable before a loud syllable. The poet applies an ABAAB rhyme scheme made up of end rhymes, “lay…way” (11, 13) “both…undergrowth” (2, 5). Frost also features consonance and assonance throughout the poem, as displayed in the following examples: “And that has made all the difference” (20) and “Yet knowing how way leads to way” (14) Repetition is the final sound device I spotted - “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (1, 18).
Not only is the poem’s central idea typically misconceived, it also exhibits a brilliant use of symbolism and metaphors. The speaker is not actually talking about a fork in the road in the woods. Rather, he is using the concept of a diverging road, to relate to decision-making in life. The road is used as a metaphor, or extended metaphor. As for the road’s splitting, this is a metaphor for the choices we make in life. When the speaker is highly considering taking one road, yet takes the other, this stands for the thinking process before deciding. Frost also uses personification in portraying the roads “because it was grassy and wanted wear”
There are four stanzas, each containing 5 lines. There is an aspect of inversion present “long I stood” (3), normally said as I stood long. A syllable pattern stays constant throughout the poem. For instance, notice the first line in each stanza has nine syllables.
Just like a song, this poem has rhythm. The rhythm is iambic which implies that there is a quiet syllable before a loud syllable. The poet applies an ABAAB rhyme scheme made up of end rhymes, “lay…way” (11, 13) “both…undergrowth” (2, 5). Frost also features consonance and assonance throughout the poem, as displayed in the following examples: “And that has made all the difference” (20) and “Yet knowing how way leads to way” (14) Repetition is the final sound device I spotted - “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (1, 18).
Not only is the poem’s central idea typically misconceived, it also exhibits a brilliant use of symbolism and metaphors. The speaker is not actually talking about a fork in the road in the woods. Rather, he is using the concept of a diverging road, to relate to decision-making in life. The road is used as a metaphor, or extended metaphor. As for the road’s splitting, this is a metaphor for the choices we make in life. When the speaker is highly considering taking one road, yet takes the other, this stands for the thinking process before deciding. Frost also uses personification in portraying the roads “because it was grassy and wanted wear”