Taken Analysis ”The Road Not Taken” is a poem written by Robert Frost. This poem is a great candidate to be one of the world’s best and this analysis will unveil why it is so. The poetic devices used in the poem bring forth its deeper meaning which ultimately resonates with the reader’s emotions. However not only this poem is great because of the literary experience it gives but it is also beautiful on a simple structural level. First lets look at the structural aspect of this poem. It contains four stanzas and each one contains five lines each.

There's a specialist from your university waiting to help you with that essay.
Tell us what you need to have done now!


order now

This is called a quintain, hence this poem is made up of four quintains. In total this makes twenty lines thus a middle sized poem. One of the most commonly used sound devices is rhyme. In this poem the rhyme pattern goes like this: ABAAB. This can be seen in the first stanza: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, (A) And sorry I could not travel both (B) And be one traveler, long I stood (A) And looked down one as far as I could (A) To where it bent in the undergrowth; (B) An example of can be seen in the poem at line seventeen: ”Somewhere ages and ages hence: ”.

Consonance and Assonance are widely used throughout as we can see in the following examples respectively: ”And that has made all the difference. ” ”Yet knowing how way leads on to way,”. Repetition is the final sound device that can be easily spotted in Frost’s poem, especially in this line: ”Somewhere ages and ages hence:”. All those sound devices add on to the complexity of the poem. They make it sound good when it is read even if it not out loud. Also like all poems the sound devices add to the entertainment value of the poem.

Just like a song this poem has rhythm. The rhythm is iambic. This implies that there is a quiet syllable before a loud syllable (ba Bum). However there are slight changes throughout. For example there can be two quiet syllables with one loud one (ba ba Bum). Additionally there are four beats per line which makes it a iambic tetrameter rhythm. Rhythm is used by the author in this literary work to create a mood and to emphasize some lines that give an important clue as to what the poem wants to transmit to the readers.

The easiest example is in the last line where the rhythm ends strong at the last word and thus leaving the reader convinced by the emphasis on the word ”difference”. Overall it brings power to the poem’s ability to go through people’s understandings and transmit its message. Imagery is used by the author to create the atmosphere of the location in which the traveller is being found at. For example in the line: ”Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” It is easy to imagine that the event is happening in the day. There are maybe some shadows from the sunshine etc.

In the flowing line: ”Because it was grassy and wanted wear;” it is understood that this road is less travelled by it is also more wild looking. Imagery is an important concept used in this poem because not only it makes the reader involved in the lecture but it also is strongly connected to the symbolist aspects of it. The obvious next concept to be covered after imagery is symbolism. This is because in many works of literature symbolism is drawn from a specific image, situation, even object which in first hand must be introduced through imagery.

One of the symbolic part of this poem lays in the description of the roads. In in the second stanza Frost describes how one road looks more grassy and not as used. This can be interpreted as the situation where the different way looks more difficult to pass by because it has not been used often. However it also says in the same stanza that both roads are worn about he same which perhaps means that after all looks can be deceiving and both roads have about the same difficulty (or easiness) to pass by them.

What is incredible about Robert Frost is that he usually leaves the final decision about the interpretation of the poem to the reader. Just like in ”The Road Not Taken” there are hints as to what the symbols of that poem are, for example the roads can symbolize the choices people make in their lives. But in the end, Frost leaves the page open to the reader’s decision on symbolism. That being said, from a literary standpoint symbolism is definitely present in this poem and unquestionably contributes to its greatness.

A psychoanalytical school of criticism will be a good match for this poem because the theme is very self centred around the one character and his thoughts. It is suggested that the poem is about reflecting on the choices which are made in our lives. The character in the poem is doing exactly that. If we turn on Robert Frost himself we can perhaps draw even more answers as to why this poem came into being. It is documented that Frost had a period in his life where he lived and worked on his farm and spent time everyday in composing poems.

Later on he abandoned the farming business and became a school teacher. At one point or another he must have reflected on his life choices. This must have inspired the man to write the poem on this subject. In conclusion ”The Road Not Taken” is a wonderful poem that resonates with the reader and which incorporates very skillfully a wide variety of poetic devices. Its imagery and symbolism are but few colours in the painting that this literary work of art creates. Frost’s ”The Road Not Taken” should unquestionably be a top candidate for the title of the world’s best poem.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *