English
Analysis of the element of Style in Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’
Stylistics is a derivative obtained from the world style and it is actually a branch of Linguistics that is related to various styles. This essay is an analysis of the various stylistic techniques employed by Robert Frost in his poem ‘The Road not Taken.’
The Road not Taken, one of the most famous poems penned by Robert Frost, is a short poem that has just 20 lines and continues being a staple in quite a few anthologies. This short, yet lovely poem of Frost essentially marks the commencement of a journey wherein it becomes crucial for the narrator to make a choice, the right one of course, for fulfilling his pursuit for regions that were unexplored yet.
Robert Frost, who is popular of being a realistic poet, had successfully set a realistic picture in this poem of having to make a right choice regarding his journey. The journey he wanted to make is actually determined to satisfy his desire to explore new pastures and not by the destination.
He confronts himself with the question of which route that he had to travel, right at the beginning of the poem. He finally decides to take the road that was less travelled by, and which he believes might take him to regions unexplored yet and ultimately giving him newer experiences for sure.
And the poem is about the road he did not chose to take for his travel.
Frost, in this poem, is basically trying to make the readers ponder upon the fact as to how much the first step of any journey in life matters because ultimately it is the first step that gives the ultimate experience of the whole journey.
There is considerable amount of symbolism that can be found in this poem which help highlight the theme while also allowing the readers to relate extensively to the narrator’s thoughts and finally being successful in interpreting the theme in their own independent way.
Frost is also seen focusing more upon the graphic elements in the poem. The poem can actually be considered as a manifestation of individualism, where Frost is seen taking a decision about commencing a journey of his life as a lyricist. Although the narrator speaks more about the road that is less travelled, it is surely expected to be a highly fascinating journey as far as the narrator is concerned.
Frost’s style in this poem is actually based upon his pursuit of understanding various things that obviously not evident and are unknown to the view. The choice of roads is a highly simple thing, yet the narrator is uncertain of the ultimate destination to which his choice of road may lead him to in the future.
While the use of extremely simple words and phrases add beauty to this short yet wonderful poem of Frost, the irony, imagery and allegories offers a deeper connotation to the whole poem.
The commonplace implications of the poem are not the same what Frost intended to convey through this poem. This indistinctness and obscurity offers a sense of anonymity to Frost’s work and such anonymity and uniqueness is not so easy to find in any regular literary piece of work.
In the first quatrain of the poem, the narrator, who is seen talking a walk in a forest on an autumn day, where the leaves in the forest have dried and changed into yellow color, is left in a situation to make choice out two different paths that head to two different ways.
The speaker is seen to be regretting about not being able to take both the paths at the same time and since that is not possible, he takes quite a long pause in his journey in order to make his choice of which path he should be taking.
In the first quatrain as well as at the start of the second, one road looks the most desirable one; yet, by the time the third quatrain of the poem begins, the narrator is seen to have come to a decision about both the routes being almost identical.
As the third quatrain progresses, we notice that the narrator is trying to reassuring himself by stating that he will certainly come back one day to commence his journey on the other road that he had not taken this time.
The name or the heading of the poem is another crucial element as it offers an understanding of the poem. The road not taken seems to be an apt title because the entire poem revolves around the narrator’s journey and the road that he chose not to take as part of his journey this time.
The title is actually justifiable in two different ways, if for instance, the title had been “The Road Less Travelled”, and then it would denote that the narrator chose the road that was rarely travelled and that having made all the metamorphosis in his journey. Frost actually rejects the popular choice and prefers to take a road, which according to him is filled with adventure, for his journey.
On the contrary, if the current title “The Road Not Taken" deeply explored, it can clearly be construed that the narrator is regretting as to why he chose to take the road that was rarely travelled upon. This is however further supported by Frost’s justification of his choice of road, when he says “I will be saying this with a sigh.”
Another interpretation of this short and stunning poem of Frost might be that the narrator had actually not travelled any of the roads mentioned in the poem. He had rather chose not to take any of the two roads as is highly indicative from the poem’s title – ‘The Road Not Taken.’
At the end of the third as well as the fourth quatrain, though, the narrator is seen to be carrying on his former tone of unhappiness and regret. He becomes conscious of the fact that he possibly might never come back to take the road he did not choose to travel this time around, and in the last quatrain he ponders the ways in which his current choice might seem to him in the days to come.
The narrator is of the strongly belief that when he wonders about this situation sometime in the future, he will recognize that that he had in face decided to take the road “less traveled,” and goes on to stated that later, he will surely realize the quantum of difference that his current choice would make in his life.
There are essentially to fundamental facts that denote the fact that the narrator opining that he will surely repent on his decision of the choice of road he made for his journey. While one of them is his mention that he would definitely “sigh” as he recounts his past, and the other is the title of the poem “The Road Not Taken” itself, which implies that he will never every stop pondering about the road he did not choose to travel.
Frost himself had actually defined of poetry being an allegory that states one thing but intends something else, which according to him is a unique pleasure in itself. The current poem “The Road Not Taken,” brings to life the above said varied uses of allegory in an extremely delightful yet ironic manner.
This particular poem of Robert Frost, undeniably is one of the sweetest and highly appealing poems of English literature. The primary theme of the poem is about making a choice in life, more importantly the right choice as it would make a lot of difference to the individual’s life.
Works Cited
Gwynn, R.S. Poetry: A Pocket Anthology. Longman, 2011.
Sumera Batool, Abdul Bari Khan, Khurram Ali, and Rana Muhammad Haris Rafiq. "Stylistic Analysis of Robert Frost’s Poem: “The Road Not Taken”." Journal of ELT and Applied Linguistics (JELTAL) 2.4 (2014): 52-64. Web. 16 February 2016. <http://www.jeltal.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/6.338102825.pdf>.
