The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Analysis

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 kept 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.

1. The dramatic situation is the turmoil the narrator faces when in front of the fork in the road, trying to decide which path to take.

2. The structure consists of four stanzas, each with 5 lines each. The rhyming pattern is ABAAB and is in the past tense.

3. The theme of the poem is making choices/decisions. The narrator is deciding between which path in the road to go, which also represents his decision on which way to go in life.

4. The grammar is modern, simple, and easy to understand. The syntax and diction mostly consists of the colloquial words used today. The meaning of the poem is the inner confusion he is dealing with as he tries to decide which choice to make not only with which path to take, but with a decision in his life.

5. Figures of speech include “Because it was grassy and wanted wear”, since a road can’t truly want wear. Another figure of speech is “Though as for that the passing there/ Had worn them really about the same…”.

6. The syntax and diction mostly consists of the colloquial words used today. Important words include “diverged” and “difference”, for these are the words that portray the two choices.

7. The tone is somber and distressed, as the reader can feel the speaker’s confusion.

8. Literary devices:

Symbolism: the two paths in a road portray two choices the speaker has to decide between in his own life.

Rhyme: “And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could…”

Parallelism: “Somewhere ages and ages hence…”

Personification: “Because it was grassy and wanted wear…”

Imagery: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,”

9. The prosody of the poem helps express Frost’s theme of inner turmoil by providing insight to the speaker’s thoughts, using literary techniques, and establishing the tone.