We could go on and on about how famous this poem is, but, since it is famous, you probably already know that. First published in Frost's collection Mountain Interval in 1916, almost a century later "The Road Not Taken" is still quoted left and right by inspirational speakers, writers, commercials, and everyday people. Along with Frost's poem " Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," it's probably one of the most taught poems in American schools. The rhythm and meter in “The Road Not Taken,” leaves the reader unsettled and questioning.Even if you haven't yet read "The Road Not Taken," it will probably have a familiar ring when you do – it's one of the most popular poems by one of the most famous American writers of the twentieth century, Robert Frost.
He writes to pull at the heart, planting seeds of thought that wiggle their way into the conscious until they bloom into epiphanies. Rather, Frost writes poems that trigger the emotions in ways that can sometimes surprise the reader. His poetry does not have the comforting harmonies of a lullaby. There is tension, discord, harmony, climax and resolve. Like a Songįrost’s poems are like finely crafted symphonies. Throughout the poem, the speaker skips a beat - anapest and dactyl - carrying the reader along with anticipation to the final stanza.Īfter telling the reader that telling the story would come with a sigh, Frost masterfully creates a sigh in the third line of this stanza when the speaker says, “…and I – / I took the one less traveled by…” Interestingly, this is all in strict iambic meter however, Frost returns to a heart skipping beats in the last line, “And that/has made all/the dif/fer ence. By beginning with a spondee - Two roads - the reader feels the sudden shock of the speaker of the poem. In “A Road Not Taken,” the beat of the poem, like the beat of a heart in the middle of a major decision in irregular. To where/ it bent /in the un/der growth (B) - iambic/iambic/anapest/iambic Lover’s QuarrelĪ strict iambic tetrameter would sound like a heart beating - da-Dum, da-Dum, da-Dum, da-Dum - steady and true. Two roads/ di verged/ in a yel/ low wood, (A) - spondee/iambic/anapest/iambicĪnd sor/ ry I could /not tra/ vel both (B) - iambic/anapest/iambic/iambicĪnd be/ one tra ve/ ler, long /I stood (A) - iambic/dactyl/iambic/iambicĪnd looked/ down one/ as far /as I could (A) - iambic/iambic/iambic/anapest For instance, in the first stanza, the meter would look like this. Loose Iambicīy bolding the stressed syllables in Frost’s poem, it is obvious that a loose iambic included some of the other types of meter. A dactyl is the opposite of an anapest with one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. Anapest starts with two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable. Trochee is the opposite, beginning with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Iambic consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stress syllable. Meter in English poems is usually one of five types - Iambic, Trochee, Spondee, Anapest, or Dactyl. To where/ it bent /in the un/dergrowth (B)įrost is quoted as saying, “There are only two meters “strict and loose iambic.” In the lines of this poem, we see what he means by loose iambic meter.” Two roads/ diverged/ in a yel/ low wood, (A)Īnd sor/ ry I /could not tra/ vel both (B)Īnd looked/ down one/ as far /as I could (A) If the first stanza of Frost’s poem were broken up into units or feet, it would look like this. (Feet or units in poetry contain stressed and unstressed syllables, as in the iambic da-Dum.) In “The Road Not Taken,” the four stanzas are five lines long with a rhyming scheme of ABAAB.Īnd looked down one as far as I could (A)Įach line, if Frost kept to the common iambic pentameter, would be five “feet” long however, Frost writes this poem with four “feet” or tetrameter. The rhythm and meter in “The Road Not Taken” is a demonstration of Frost’s ability to break with tradition, leaving behind a lasting legacy. Robert Frost was a New Englander, a farmer, a lecturer and a poet with a use for metaphor and a mastery of form that propelled him into fame in spite of his eccentric ways. Even his final resting place, with the statement, “I had a lover’s quarrel with the world,” is a testament to Frost’s irascible manner. Often at odds with family, friends and neighbors, Frost was known to be cranky and egocentric, something that readers see in his poems. The life of Robert Frost is a study of a man who didn’t follow the pack he lived life in his own way.