Frost's the Road Not Taken

Alex Gilkey

Mr. Stein

February 11, 2014

Frost's The Road Not Taken

"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"

The first stanza of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken". It is one of the most recognized poems that was ever written. In this poem, the speaker has to decide which road to go down in a wood. The poetic elements used in this poem would be imagery and rhyme. In this poem, Robert Frost makes it clear that any dissension in your life can make a difference.

In this poem, the narrator is trying to decide whether to go down one road or the other. He chooses the one that looks better than the other.But later regrets his decision because after looking, he realizes that both of the roads look rather the same. Behind the literal meaning of the poem, it’s trying to convey the message that making a decision without knowing what lies ahead could make you feel different. The theme of this poem would be that once you make a decision, it’s hard to go back to the point where you were making that decision. This is very true in life because the decisions you make can affect your entire life, and those events can make it hard to choose the other choice.

Frost used several poetic elements when writing this poem. One of these is imagery, which he uses a lot of in the beginning.

"Two roads diverge in a yellow wood"

In this line, Frost uses imagery to set the scene of the poem. It takes place in a wood in the autumn.

"In leaves no step had rotted back"

In this line, he says that no one had walked on the leaves on the other road. Frost uses imagery to set the scene of the poem and tell the story as well.

Frost also uses rhyme in this poem, but it is difficult to pick up on

"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"

If you look closely at the first stanza, you can see that there is a rhyming pattern in the words. The pattern is such: ABAAB (each letter represents a different line).

The poetic elements in this poem can contribute to several different tones. One of which is confused. He is confused because he does not know which road to take. Another tone in this poem is happy. He is happy because he says he can take the other path at another time. Another tone in this poem is joy. He is joyful because he will be able to tell his story and make a difference in people’s lives.

The poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost uses many different poetic elements, tones, and messages to make it such a compelling story. In this poem, Robert Frost uses the story of a fork in the road to convey the message that if you make any little difference, it can change your life and make all the difference.