1. Literary Devices
in the Road Not
Taken?
AMER MAHMOOD YOUSAF
ENGLISH DEPTT.
GOVT. ISLAMIA COLLEGE
CIVIL LINES LAHORE.
2.
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,
3.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked 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.
4.
Road is used as a metaphor and as an
extended metaphor.
the road splitting, this is a metaphor of
choices we make in life.
the fork in the road is used as a metaphor
throughout the poem, it is termed an
extended metaphor.
In line 6 where the person is thinking of taking
one road, but takes another, this is a
metaphor for thinking of your choices before
deciding.
5. Nature
is also used as a metaphor in the
poem.
In the beginning, the woods are yellow
meaning in the autumn.
This could be a metaphor of making
decisions during the fall of your life or
when you are getting older.
6. The
Road Not Taken – Frost Critical
Analysis. "The Road Not Taken", written by
Robert Lee Frost, is a poem that has four
five-line stanzas with only two end rhymes
in each stanza (abaab). Several kinds of
literary devices can be found in the
poem. One of the literary devices
employed is antithesis.
7. It
contains four stanzas and each one
contains five lines each. This is called a
quintain, hence this poem is made up of
four quintains. In total this makes twenty
lines thus a middle sized poem.
8. Two
roads diverged in a yellow wood, (A)
And sorry I could not travel both (B)
And be one traveler, long I stood (A)
And looked down one as far as I could
(A)
To where it bent in the undergrowth; (B)
9. Consonance and Assonance are widely
used throughout as we can see in the
following examples respectively: ''And
that has made all the difference.'' ''Yet
knowing how way leads on to way,''.
Repetition is the final sound device that
can be easily spotted in Frost's poem,
especially in this line: ''Somewhere ages
and ages hence:''.
10. Just
like a song this poem has rhythm. The
rhythm is iambic. This implies that there is a
quiet syllable before a loud syllable.
Diction and Imagery
More concrete than abstract
More formal than informal
More general than specific
Mostly visual
11. Figures of Speech and Symbolism
Personification- Because it was grassy and
wanted wear
Robert Frost is not actually talking about
a road fork in the woods. Rather, he is
using the concept of a diverging road to
relate to making decisions in life.
12. Syntax and Structure
Each stanza contains 5 lines.
Long I stood is an example of a different
syntax because it would normally be said as I
stood Long.
Rhythm and Meter
There is a similar syllable pattern throughout
the poem.
For example the first line in each stanza has 9
syllables.
13. Sound and Sense
The rhymes are end rhymes.
Perfect rhymes are lay and way
Slant rhymes are both and undergrowth
