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Unit 1: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

1.3.2 Critical Analysis Notes

Form
The poem “The Road Not Taken” includes four stanzas of five lines each. The rhyme scheme is
ABAAB; the rhymes are masculine and strict, with the prominent exception of the last line (the -
ence of difference is usually not stressed upon).
Analysis and Discussion

The poem is analysed from the stylistic perspectives by using the following devices; (a) figures
of speech, (b) prosody and poetic form, (c) syntax and grammatical structures, and (d) diction
and vocabulary as proposed by (Bradford, 1997: 15). The following shows the detailed stylistics
analysis of the poem:

The Figures of Speech

Several figures of speech have been used in this poem. Firstly, it is a metaphor. In the poem, the
diverging paths are compared to the choices that the poet makes. This indicates that a traveller
comes to a fork in the road and he must decide which path he wants to take to continue his
journey. After much debate, the traveller chooses the road that has been less travelled by. The
figurative implication is not hidden. The poem lays emphasises on the tough choices that people
need to make when traveling the road of life. The traveller regrets as he had to leave the
possibilities of the road not chosen behind. He wishes to return to explore the other path but
realises that he may never pass this way again.
Secondly, it is antithesis. After coming to the fork in the road the traveller wishes he could travel
both roads without having to choose between anyone. The traveller realises that within the
existing theories of our physical word, this is not possible and he instantly rejects the thought.

Another contradictory point is the two remarks in the second stanza about the road less travelled.
On one hand, the traveller describes the road as wanting wear and grassy, after which he turns
to say that both the roads are actually equally damaged. Maybe the road less travelled by makes
travellers turn back.
Lastly, it is a personification. All practical people know that roads can’t think and want. The
description of the road wanting wear is a case of personification. Though, some people consider
“wanting wear” as not being a personification, but rather older English meaning “lacking”. So
according to them it may be “Because it was grassy and lacked wear.” The prosody and poetic
form (b) level heading has been included in it. All the four above given heading from (a)–(d) has
to be included.

In a poem, the use of language and rhythm as one of the prosodic elements help build up and
arouse the readers’ spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling and emotions (Norton, 1989: 163).
This poem consists of four stanzas, each stanza contains five lines. Each is with a rhyme scheme
of ABAAB. The basic rhythm is iambic tetrameter x / | x / | x / | x / | (x stands for unstressed)
with some variations in the last meters of each line (Altenbend and Lewis, 1969: 197). For
instance, the second line of the first stanza, “And sorry I could not travel both” has the following
rhythm: x / | x / | x / | / x | / / |.
The entire poem has a lively and strong rhythm when each line starts but the rhythm gets
stressed in the end of each line. This indicates that the rhythm becomes heavier and slower
signifying the narrator’s gloomy thoughts and bewilderment in such decisional crisis. For
example, in First stanza’s third line, “And be one traveler, long I stood” the rhythm mainly
follows the one of iambic, but at the end of the line, the last foot constitutes the stressed ones.

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