SUMMARY AND POETIC DEVICES OF THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

POETIC DEVICES

1. Metaphor: There are many metaphors in the poem like road, fork in the road and yellow woods. The road in the poem is the metaphor of life, while the fork on the road metaphorically represents the choices we make to determine the course of our lives. Similarly, yellow woods are the metaphor of making decisions during the hard times of a person’s life. These metaphors used in this poem emphasize the importance of different decisions we make in different situations and their impacts on our lives.
2. Imagery: Imagery is used to make the readers feel things through their five senses. The poet has used images of the sense of sights such as leaves, yellow woods and  These images help readers to actually perceive things they are reading. The image of the road helps readers to visualize the road providing a navigation route to the traveler.
3. Simile: A simile is a device used to compare things with familiar things to let the readers know it easily. There is one simile used in the second stanza such as “as just as fair”. It shows how the poet has linked the road less taken to the easy way through life.
4. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds such as the sound of /a/ and /o/ in quick succession in “though as far that the passing” and in “Somewhere ages and ages hence.”
5. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds such as /d/ in “two roads diverging in a yellow wood” and /t/ sound in “though as far as the passing there.”
6. Personification: Robert Frost has personified road in the third line of the second stanza. Here, it is stated “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” as if the road is human, and that it wants to wear and tear.

Frost uses several literary devices in ‘The Road Not Taken’. To begin with, he uses 

0. anaphora - (a poetic device in which a word or phrase is repeated at the start of successive phrases, clauses or sentences) in the second, third, and fourth lines of the first stanza.

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

1. Another important device of this piece is enjambment.  It can be seen in the third and fourth lines. Using this device, he maintains the flow in between the lines as well as connects them internally.

Long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

2. Readers can find the use of metonymy in the phrase, “a yellow wood”. It refers to the season, autumn, and its effect on nature. 

3. There is a symbol in the usage of the word, “undergrowth”. It stands for the undiscovered regions of the future.

4. In the second stanza, readers can find the use of irony in this line, “And having perhaps the better claim.” This device is explained further below. Apart from that, Frost uses alliteration in the phrase, “wanted wear”.

5. The third stanza presents an inversion or hyperbaton in this line, “In leaves no step had trodden black.” 

6. The line also contains a synecdoche. 

7. In the following line, readers can find a rhetorical exclamation. 

8.  In the last stanza, the poet uses repetition for emphasizing a particular idea. For example, the phrase, “ages and ages” emphasizes the continuity of life’s journey. While the repetition of the word, “I” in the end and beginning of the third and fourth lines are meant for the sake of highlighting the speaker’s hesitation. Such repetition is also known as anadiplosis. 

Lastly, the poem ends with a paradox.

Historical Context

Robert Frost‘s ‘The Road Not Taken’ depicts the poet or individual looking in retrospect and contemplating upon past decisions. As per a biographical account by Lawrence Thompson, “Robert Frost: The Years of Triumph”, the poem was based on his Welsh pal named Edward Thomas. According to him, his friend was always regretful of his decision, irrespective of the road taken.

Considering himself as a regional poet, New England has been used as a recurring location in Robert Frost’s poems. He moved to New Hampshire in his early teens. As a result, the rich culture, vivid imagery, history, and landscape are reflected in his published work. Elements such as orchards, forests, fields, and small towns are observed commonly. His narrators are often close to nature, wandering in woods (Read ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’)

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’ is about the choices and opportunities in life. The poem highlights the sensation of regret that accompanies all the roads that a person doesn’t take.

‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost is quite a popular poem; unfortunately, however, its popularity comes mainly from the simple act of misreading. With this poem, Frost has given the world a piece of writing that every individual can relate to, especially when it comes to the concept of choices and opportunities in life.

A majority of the time, this poem is quoted and used with an interpretation that is not exactly “correct”. The popular belief is that Frost meant for this poem to be about hope, success, and defying the odds by choosing a path well, “less traveled by.” On the other hand, if the poem is reviewed, it is quite obvious that it has fairly the opposite connotation.

It is Robert Frost’s first poem in his book “Mountain Interval” (1916). A popular pleasantly misconstrued poem since its release, its simplicity, and way with words demonstrate the skill of Frost’s pen.

Summary

‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost describes how the speaker struggles to choose among two roads diverging in the yellowish woods on an autumn morning.

In the poem, the individual arrives at a critical juncture in his life, arriving at crossroads at last near “a yellow wood.” As per him, the paths are equally well-traversed, and they yield anonymous outcomes. The individual comforts with a thought about returning, be if his path is unsuitable for him, yet in hindsight, he’s aware of the futility of such thought. Since his current path will bring upon separate paths in itself, disallowing any consequent reversal. The individual concludes on a melancholic note of how different circumstances and outcomes would have been, had it been the “other” path.

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Detailed Analysis

‘A Road Not Taken’ opens with a strong imagery, because of the diction used to depict two physical roads separating from each other in “a yellow wood.” It is observably a forest that is showcasing the colours of autumn.

Line two is hasty to display the theme of regret, by revealing that the individual is “sorry” before he even decides which road to take. We basically find ourselves observing a very important moment, where he has to make a decision that is evidently difficult for him.

Lines three through five, express that the individual is trying to see as far as he can down each road, to help him decide which one he should choose to take.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

The first two lines of this stanza introduce the dilemma that every human faces, not once, but multiple times in his or her life; the dilemma of choice. We as people go through many circumstances and experiences in our lives, and one of them is choosing between two (or more) paths.This is experienced literally: in the roads we take and the routes we walk daily, and figuratively: when we come to points in our lives where we must make decisions for our next steps, based on the opportunities presented to us. And like the character in ‘The Road Not Taken,’ oftentimes, we are disappointed that we cannot hold on to, and experience the consequences of every opportunity that is presented to us. In order to gain some things in life, we must let others go.

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

By having the character in the poem examine the roads ahead of him, Frost is emphasizing that we all try our best to guess what lays ahead for us in every opportunity that we are presented in an attempt to find some control and later comfort over our final decisions. We like to take our time in order to make informed decisions so we can justify our choices when the regret of missing out on the other “roads” starts to haunt us.

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,

In this second stanza, lines six through eight: the individual in ‘The Road Not Taken’ finally makes a decision and chooses a road that he thinks and believes is better, because it looked like not many people had walked on it before.

However, in lines nine and ten, he is quick to add that the other road looked equally used in comparison to the one he chose, so it really was not as less traveled as he was telling himself.

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

These lines are important because they clarify the common misunderstanding that one road was less traveled than the other since the character clearly states that both roads were “really about the same.” The diction in this stanza portrays the uncertainty of the character as he tries to justify to himself that his decision is the right one for him; and much like anyone else, he is trying to realistically weigh the outcomes of both roads.

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

The important idea to note in these lines is that the character claimed the road he chose was better because it “wanted wear” meaning that it was tempting him. He felt that the road he chose “wanted” to be walked on by him. This underlines the nature of people in general, that we will always choose the path which seems attractive and is of interest to us, even if both paths have the equal potential of getting us to wherever it is we are headed.No matter where we end up, and how informed, tempting, and satisfying our choices are, we will always wonder about the “what ifs” and the “could have been” of the other opportunities that we left behind.

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

In the third stanza, Robert Frost mentions in lines eleven and twelve that at the moment that this individual was making his decision, both paths were nearly identical. No one had stepped through to disturb the leaves on both roads.

Line thirteen is an important point in ‘The Road Not Taken’ as this is when the individual finalizes his decision of leaving the other road, for perhaps another time.Lines fourteen and fifteen give us a glimpse of his doubts. He honestly confesses to himself that it’s highly unlikely he will come back to travel this other road because he knows as he moves forward he will continue to find other paths taking him further and further away from this point, where he is standing at the moment.

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

The lines show us that this character is truly being honest with himself, as he makes the crucial decision of which road to take. His honesty is a reality check as well as a means of making a final decision. He notices that both choices lay equally in front of him and none of these choices have been “trodden black”.

Sometimes in life, when we reach a fork, we are able to make quick decisions based on what we learned from other people’s experiences. These experiences then leave marks in the choices that we have, these marks then form our bias towards or against that path. When we encounter choices in our lives where we find that the leaves are not “trodden black” by what we learned from the people around us, it becomes harder to decide between them, just like the situation of the character in ‘The Road Not Taken’.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,I doubted if I should ever come back.After making his decision, he exclaims that he will leave the first choice for another day. Then he honestly tells himself that if he lets this road go now, there is no coming back. There are many defining decisions in our life that shape our future and sometimes when we select an option in these moments, they change the course of our life and there’s no turning back. That is where the regret of not exploring our other options disturbs us.

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.

In this last stanza, lines sixteen and seventeen, the individual predicts that one day far into the future, he knows will tell the story of this decision that he is now making.

Lines eighteen and nineteen expose that he intends to lie and claim he took the less-traveled road. In reality, both were equally traveled.

Finally, the last line expresses that the individual is also planning to claim that his choice to take this less traveled road made all the difference, in where he will be standing at the time.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

These lines of the last stanza highlight the nature of our regrets. When it comes to tough decisions in our lives, we always know that no matter what we finally choose, eventually, we will regret not being able to try the possibility that was left uncharted by us.