Robert Frost The Road Not Taken

"The Road Not Taken" describes a situation many individuals will face throughout life: which road is the right one to travel? Scholar John Savoie argues that, "the poem holds a place in virtually every Americans imagination from adolescence onward" (5). The narrator of the poem is described as taking "the road "less traveled by" (line 19). Robert Frost has skillfully written the poem to not only provide a situation many can relate to, but to challenge thought through his use of language in the poem. Robert Frost uses imagery, tone, and irony to illustrate one's decision of which road to take. Imagery is a poetic device that authors use to appeal to readers’ sense of sight, smell, touch, and taste. Robert Frost uses imagery heavily in his poem "The Road Not Taken." For example, in lines 1 and 5 he uses wording such as "diverged in a yellow wood," and "bent in the undergrowth" to appeal to his readers’ senses. When one reads these lines it is likely he or she can imagine these two roads; how they look, the small of a wooded area, and maybe even the sounds of wildlife that could …show more content…
"The Road Not taken" contains the use of irony which challenges readers to think about what Frost actually was trying to convey. For instance, the road the narrator takes is first states that ". . .it was grassy and wanted wear," then that "Though as for that the passing there. Had worn them really about the same" (line 8, 9, 10). Readers are left to question what frost meant by this statement. Did he really take the "road less traveled?" Or had it actually been traveled just as much as the other? Frosts use of irony leaves the meaning unclear. Perhaps the road was not simultaneously "less worn" and "less traveled," but the narrator’s perspective changed. Frost used irony in "The Road Not Taken" to challenge readers to dig deeper into the meaning of the poem and to challenge their own