The Road Not Taken
The Road Not Taken by 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)
Formalism deals with ‘literariness’ and ’defamiliarization’ aspects. The aspects differ literary from the other kinds of writing. In formalism, a poem can be analyzed scientifically by looking at the devices. This paper analyzes The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost by explaining the poetry devices.
First, the poem has 4 stanzas and 5 lines for each stanza or quintain so it can be said that the poem has 4 quintains. All of the lines begin with capital letters and are in the same length, they consist of 9 syllables.
The rhyme of the poem is ABAAB. Rhyme is repetition of similar sounds in the end of lines and it helps to unify a poem. For example is in the first stanza.
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
The poem has many alliteration. Alliteration refers to the repetition of consonant in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases. There are some alliteration in the poem such as then took the (6), wanted wear (8), that the (9), first for (13), telling this (16), and took the (19). The
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)
Formalism deals with ‘literariness’ and ’defamiliarization’ aspects. The aspects differ literary from the other kinds of writing. In formalism, a poem can be analyzed scientifically by looking at the devices. This paper analyzes The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost by explaining the poetry devices.
First, the poem has 4 stanzas and 5 lines for each stanza or quintain so it can be said that the poem has 4 quintains. All of the lines begin with capital letters and are in the same length, they consist of 9 syllables.
The rhyme of the poem is ABAAB. Rhyme is repetition of similar sounds in the end of lines and it helps to unify a poem. For example is in the first stanza.
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
The poem has many alliteration. Alliteration refers to the repetition of consonant in the first syllables of a series of words or phrases. There are some alliteration in the poem such as then took the (6), wanted wear (8), that the (9), first for (13), telling this (16), and took the (19). The