chapter the raod not taken and explanation,paraphrasing and poetic devices.
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Answer:
Analysis of Literary Devices in “The Road Not Taken”
The analysis of literary devices explains the hidden meanings of a literary text or a poem. The use of literary devices is intended to bring richness and clarity to the text with different meanings. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is also filled with important undertones with the following literary devices.
- Metaphor: There are many metaphors in the poem like road, fork in the road and yellowwoods. The road in the poem is the metaphor of life, while the fork on the road metaphorically represents the choices we make to determine the course of our lives. Similarly, yellow woods are the metaphor of making decisions during the hard times of a person’s life. These metaphors used in this poem emphasize the importance of different decisions we make in different situations and their impacts on our lives.
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make the readers feel things through their five senses. The poet has used images of the sense of sights such as leaves, yellowwoods and These images help readers to actually perceive things they are reading. The image of the road helps readers to visualize the road providing a navigation route to the traveler.
- Simile: A simile is a device used to compare things with familiar things to let the readers know it easily. There is one simile used in the second stanza such as “as just as fair”. It shows how the poet has linked the road less taken to the easy way through life.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds such as the sound of /a/ and /o/ in quick succession in “though as far that the passing” and in “Somewhere ages and ages hence.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds such as /d/ in “two roads diverging in a yellow wood” and /t/ sound in “though as far as the passing there.”
- Personification: Robert Frost has personified road in the third line of the second stanza. Here, it is stated “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” as if the road is human, and that it wants to wear and tear.
- Parallelism: Parallelism is the use of a source of words, phrases or sentences that have similar grammatical forms. Frost has used Parallelism in the poem such as:
“And sorry I could not travel both”
“And be only one traveler long I stood”
“And looked down once as far as I could”
Concluding the literary analysis, it can be argued that Robert Frost has beautifully used various literary devices to make the poem display multiplicity of interpretation which has gained the poem much deserved popularity.
Analysis of Poetic Devices in “The Road Not Taken”
Although most of the poetic devices are part of literary devices, some devices are only used in poems. The analysis of some of the major poetic devices used in this poem is given here.
Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of a fixed number of lines. In this poem, there are four stanzas with each stanza having five verses or lines.
Quintain: A quintain is a five-lined stanza borrowed from Medieval French Poetry. Here, each stanza is a quintain such as the first one or the second one.
Rhyme Scheme: The whole poem follows ABAAB rhyme scheme. There are four beats per line, employing iambic tetrameter. The rhymes in “The Road Not Taken” are end rhymes which are also perfect rhymes.
Trochee: Trochee means there is a one stressed and one unstressed syllable in a line such as “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.”
Anapests: Anapests means there are two short or unstressed syllables followed by one long or stressed syllable. The above example is also an anapest.
This analysis shows that this poem, though, seems a simple and innocent composition, points to the reality of making decisions in complex situations. The point to remember is that the road has been emphasized in that it is the choice that makes the road important for us. In other words, our preferences in life make us different from others.
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