Poetry

The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost

A picture of Robert Frost. (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963 / San Francisco)

 The Road Not Taken Poem       

  Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

——–

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

——–

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

——–

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.

The Road Not Taken – An Analyzation of Rhyme Scheme and Literary Devices found in The Road Not Taken

            Within the poem, Frost uses several literary devices to allow the poem to have better effect on its readers and aide readers to understand the theme of the poem. The rhyme scheme of The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost goes ABAAB. Having a rhyme scheme like this one keeps the reader interested in reading the poem and it allows the reader to have fun while reading it as well.

Another literary device would be onomatopoeia. “I shall be telling this with a sigh”, this is found in stanza four, line one. “Sigh” is an example of onomatopoeia. I believe this line is telling the audience that the narrator, when he becomes older, will reminisce on the event of him coming across a fork in the road and having to choose one road. The narrator will be telling of his encounter with the fork in the road with emptiness, sadness, and maybe regret, because he was not able to see what would come of the road that he did not take.

Frost uses not only onomatopoeia, but also imagery in The Road Not Taken. In stanza one, line one, it says, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” this line paints an image of the fork in the road to the reader. Another example would be, “And both that morning equally lay/In leaves no step had trodden black.” This line paints the image of the two roads being equal in a way that no one had walked on any of the roads that morning because none of the leaves on the roads were black due to people walking on them.

Furthermore, Frost uses personification by giving one of the roads human-like qualities. Stanza two, line three says, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear.” This line tells the audience that the second road was grassy and wanted to be walked on. Saying that the road “wanted wear” is an example of personification because an inanimate object can’t have a desire to want something.

Lastly, Frost uses symbolism to convey the theme to readers. Frost uses the two roads in the poem as symbols. The roads symbolize decisions that people have. One road is a decision that most people make and the other road is a decision that most people do not make. “ Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, /I took the one less traveled by, /And that has made all the difference.” The narrator of the poem makes a decision that most people do not make and says that it has really changed his life. The poem does not state whether the decision the narrator makes changes his life positively or negatively. But personally, after reading the poem, I got the vibe that the decision the narrator made came with a positive impact. I believe that the rhyme scheme had something to do with the positive vibe I felt, because when I read it, I read it a bit cheerfully.

The Road Not Taken – Theme

            The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost, tells the story of a person who one morning, stumbles across a fork in the road and has trouble on deciding which road to take. In the end, he decides to take the road less travelled by. Frost uses imagery, symbolism, and rhyme scheme to convey the theme. The theme that I believe Frost is trying to convey to the audience would be that life is full of decisions and although it may be easier to make decisions that everyone else makes, choosing the most difficult path will pay off in the long run. First, Frost uses the poem to tell the audience of the narrator’s coming across “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”. Then, Frost uses two roads to symbolize decisions that people have in life. Lastly, Frost uses rhyme scheme to tell the audience that although he made a difficult decision by not going with the usual, it came with a positive outcome.

In the first stanza, the narrator tells the audience of his coming across “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”. Immediately the audience is able to picture a fork in the road and when finished reading the poem, they can then see how the roads are a huge part of the poem because of what they symbolize. Another example would be, “And both that morning equally lay/In leaves no step had trodden black.” This line paints the image of the two roads being equal in a way that no one had walked on any of the roads that morning because none of the leaves on the roads were black due to people walking on them. This helps convey the theme because it tells the audience that some decisions are identical which makes it harder to make a decision. “And looked down one as far as I could /To where it bent in the undergrowth;” I think this line means that it is difficult to become decisive in situations that are hard to picture the aftermath of or that you have no idea how that situation is going to end.

Frost also uses roads to symbolize decisions that people have in life. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, /And sorry I could not travel both/ And be one traveler,” This line explains that there are two decisions and that the narrator can only choose one. In stanzas two and three, the narrator explains that both roads basically look equal and that he will take the second road today and leave the first for another day. But, he knows that one road will lead to another and that he most likely will not be able to ever take the first road. So, Frost is saying that decisions will lead to other decisions and you don’t get a repeat or get to take back the decisions you make. In the last stanza (“I shall be telling this with a sigh /Somewhere ages and ages hence: /Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, /I took the one less traveled by, /And that has made all the difference.”), the narrator says that in the future, he will retell of his encounter between himself and the fork in the road with doubt or that what if feeling because he will never know what his life would be like if he were to decide to make the other decision. In the end, I believe the narrator feels confident and happy that he made the decision that he made because he made the decision that most people would not take and that has built the person he is now.

Lastly, I believe that Frost uses rhyme scheme to tell the audience that although he made a difficult decision by not going with the usual, it came with a positive outcome. Having the rhyme scheme ABAAB incorporated into the poem, added a joyful, bouncy feeling at the end of the poem. So without telling the audience that in the long run the decision the narrator made him really happy, Frost uses rhyme scheme to imply that the narrator lives a happy life because of the decision he made.

In conclusion, Frost uses all these literary devices, especially symbolism, to convey the theme of “Life is full of decisions and although it may be easier to make decisions that everyone else makes, choosing the most difficult path will pay off in the long run.”

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SLAM POETRY

Slam poetry incorporates language, beat, music, sound, rhythm, and word. Spoken word has been used to evoke a person’s thoughts or feelings upon an audience. For entertainment, spoken word or slam poetry performances usually are made up of storytelling and poetry.

According to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy film, vogon poetry is considered to be the third worst poetry in the universe. Listening to vogon poetry has been compared to being quite similar to torture. Vogon poetry consists of harsh sounding words (cacophony) that’ll make your ears bleed.

WORKS CITED

“Literary Devices.” Literary Devices | Definitions & Examples. Literary Devices, 2010. Web. 12 Feb. 2012. http://literary-devices.com/.

“2012 Calgary Spoken Word Festival.” 2012 Calgary Spoken Word Festival. Calgary Spoken Word Society, 2012. Web. 09 May 2012. <http://www.calgaryspokenwordfestival.com/about-whatis.html&gt;.

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