The Road Not Taken

 Robert Frost

 

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; 5


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, 10

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. 15

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. 20 

Analysis
The theme of this poem is the direction you take in life (making choices) or

how one decision can change a person's entire life. The speaker chose one path over another, and that, he says, 
 

‘Two roads diverged in a wood,
 and I-I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference’.

The theme of this poem can also be the poet’s inner conflict in dealing with difference:
‘sorry I could not travel both’.

The poem shows how difficult it is to make a choice: ‘sorry I could not travel both and be one traveller’. The poet also urges that people should be individuals and not follow the majority: ‘I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference’.

There are multiple poetic devices used in Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken.
In the first line, the poet used assonance. Assonance is the repetition of a vowel sound within a line of poetry. In the first line, Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, the "o" sound is repeated in "roads" and "yellow."

In the eighth line, Because it was grassy and wanted wear, the author uses personification. Personification is the giving of human characteristics to non-human/non-living things. In this line, the path wanted wear. A path cannot want. Only humans can want. This qualifies as personification.

The poem as a whole is a metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to a person, idea, or object to which it is not literally applicable.

The poet is, therefore, comparing the paths in life to the choices one must make when reaching a crossroads. The poem speaks of the actual choices in life as roads one must choose to take. Metaphorically, the roads simply represent choices in life.

Alliteration is used subtly in "wanted wear" (eighth line) (the repeated w sound at the beginning of the words) and improves the musical quality of the poem.


Structurally, this poem consists of four stanzas of five lines following an ABAAB rhyme scheme