Robert Frost’s Poems Analysis Essay

Robert Frost, although he was first published in England, is an American poet. The Road Not Taken is written in the first person allowing the reader to know how the speaker is feeling and experience actions in their own words. The speaker of this poem was Frost’s friend, Lawrence Thompson, who always questioned his decisions. The audience is people who are having trouble making life choices, like young adults just finding their way into the world. In Robert Frost’s poem,

The Road Not Taken, he creates his idea of a life of choices with the use of metaphor and imagery to create his tone and theme.

Frost’s poem starts off by giving us a sense of the setting. He gives the reader a vision in line 1, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” showing that the fork in the road splits off into separate highways filled with beautiful nature. The yellow woods could also represent making difficult decisions in your life as the speaker splits have to decide which road to take on the fork, choosing the one less traveled. Not only did Frost give us vivid imagery in this poem, but he also used many other poetic devices. In this poem, Frost uses many different poetic devices, creating iambic tetrameter. The repetition of vowels in line 9, “though as far as the passing,” creating assonance. Very similar in line 1 the repetition of consonants, “two roads diverging in a yellow wood,” creating consonance. Not only does Frost use repetition of sounds, but he also personifies many objects in this poem. For example, the road in line 8, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear,” as if the road is human and is worn out. By using these poetic devices Robert Frost fills his poem with important undertones, creating richness and clarity to the text with a different, deeper meaning. The deeper meaning of this text is the choice of which road to take it represents. The speaker chose the road that was less traveled but had more sights to see.

The speaker did not know what the road he chose had to offer, he could have new adventures and challenges to face, but he was ready for it. Although some regret is shown over his choice, there is the realization that the road has made a huge impact on his life. This poem illustrates the uncertainty and complexity of the minds of people about the situations they face where they have to make difficult decisions. Robert Frost used poetic devices, such as imagery and personification to illustrate a story of life choices. He creates a place in our mind to think about how the choices we make can have in our lifetime have a variety of outcomes. Touching our souls, it shows how life choices may sometimes be scary, but the experience is sometimes what matters the most.

Did you like this example?

708

30