Figures Of Speech In Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

In reading Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” for the first time, I felt that it had a good message with meaning behind it. However the more I read it, the more meaning I found behind his words. The speaker in this poem comes to a point on his travels where he must choose which path to take when reaches a fork in the road. While trying to make a decision he wishes that he could take both paths, but in the end chooses the one that appears to be less worn to him. The speaker thinks that in the time to come he will talk about how choosing which path to take was final and life changing. Even though this is the overall meaning to the poem, there is much more to pick out of it by closely looking at the many figures of speech throughout it. The first line of the poem: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,”(ll.1) provides the readers with the first metaphor. This line brings the setting into play for the poem. The road splitting into two could be a metaphor of choice. In traveling the speaker has come to a point in his life where he must make a decision. In order to go any further he must choose which path is more fitting for him, and prevents him from picking the other path. Being that this metaphor is carried throughout the poem it can also be considered an extended

These lines read: “And both that morning equally lay/In leaves no step had trodden black.” (ll. 11-12). These lines inform us that it is an autumn morning for the speaker. These lines take us back to figuring out which path truly is the less traveled. Being that the leaves have freshly fallen throughout the night and the speaker is just now coming to the fork in the road, it may be harder to really see which path is less worn. If both are covered with leaves how do you really know? So these lines may draw our attention to realize that in life it can be difficult to really know which choices are the best for