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;

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,

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.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I─

Took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

A Formalist Approach to Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken

There are many ways to analyze the poetry, one of the approach is using the formalist theory. As discussed in An Introduction to
Literary Studies (1999), the formalist concerned about literary structure; using phonemic device not the phonetic content. Therefore,
using the formalist theory will help to analyze the elements of the poem in order to look its effect in the meaning of the poem. The poem
that will be analyze using formalism approach is “The road Not Taken” poem by Robert Frost.

First lets take a look from the speaker of the poem. As I see that the speaker “I” in the poem “The Road Not Taken”, is in the middle of
journey somewhere in a wood and stands between two roads that he had to choose. The evident that show the speaker see the two
roads in front of him, when he writes “two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” The speaker had to stand and choosing which is road he
had to take, so this poem is kind of a Lyric Poem which express the thoughts, or feeling to the poet. Hence the tone of the poem can
directly see that there is a confusion and hesitation in order to which road to choose. It is makes the reader nerve whether the speaker
choose the right road for himself.

Besides, the other characteristics like imagery, symbol, overstatement, sound are given a meaning to the poem. The using of imagery
in this poem is more concrete than abstract and mostly visual. The imagery in the poem can be seen in the first stanza and the second
stanza. The evident is when the speaker writes “two roads diverged in a yellow wood” in line 1 and “Because it was grassy and wanted
wear” in line 8. The word of “yellow wood” and “it was grassy” those are show the verbal imagery for the poem. It shows the concrete
representation of the object that describe in the poem.

After that, I found that “The Road Not Taken” is symbolized the choice in life. For the first stanza, the reader just know the choice that
the speaker had to make is only about the road choice. However the reader will know that the choice is not only about the simple choice
of the road in the last stanza. The speaker believes that his choice will be affect to his future. It will make a difference in his life
somehow. Therefore the choice of the road symbolized any choice in life that affects the future. In this poem there is repetition and
overstatement. The repetition can be seen in the fourth stanza line 18 “Two roads diverged in a wood” and overstatement can be seen
in line 17 “Somewhere ages and ages hence.” It means the speaker wants to show how the choice can effect his life in the future.

Robert Frost also uses various of sound in this poem in order to emphasize some sections of the poem. He uses alliteration,
assonance, rhyme, rhythm. The alliteration which is the repeated of consonant sounds can be seen in the poem with the use of “r,” “t,”
and “s” in all stanza. In the first and third stanza dominantly use alliteration “r” and “t,” in the second and fourth stanza use alliteration “r”
and “s.” It makes the sound of the poem rough.

There is a various assonance which is the repeatation of vowel sounds in the poem. The “Road Not Taken” poem use asonance such
as “u,” and “o.” We can see assonance “u” in the words “two,” “wood,” “stood,” “looked,” “took,” it means that the speaker see the two
roads in the wood and he stood to look which is the road that he should choose. Next is the “o” sound in the words “sorry,” “not,” “both,”
“for,” “morning,” “no,” “trodden” it means that the speaker emphasize that he cannot choose both roads and finally he chooses one of
the road that person rarely passing there.

After analyzing “The Road Not Taken” poem by Robert Frost with the formalist approach, we can see that the
formalist approach can applies well to the poem. Some elements of the poem use in this poem such as imagery, symbol,
tone, overstatement, sounds. They are important to get the meaning of the poem. The meaning of the poem related to our life
which is sometimes in the life we face some choice that we had to choose. In this poem, the idea is using the nature (wood) to
explain that there are two roads in the wood, one of the road is often pass by person and the others rarely pass by person.
The speaker in the end choose the road that rarely pass by person. It is related in our life, sometimes we also choose the
choise that other person rarely choose. However the choice that we choose can effect the future.

Works cited
Klarer, Mario. An Introduction to Literary Studies. London: Routledge. 1999.
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.