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.

The 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, and the stanzaic structure
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 effects 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 can not choose both roads and
finally he choose one of the road that person rarely passing there.
In the poem there are two kinds of rhyme, feminine rhyme and masculine rhyme. The feminine rhyme
can be seen if the final syllabel of a rhymed word is unstressed. The masculine rhyme can be seen if the
final syllabel is stressed. However this poem uses the masculine rhyme, because the final syllabel in the
poem is stressed. The poem consists of four stanzas with five lines each and the rhyme scheme of this
poem is ABAAB-CDCCD-EFEEF-GHGGH. For example, take a look at the first stanza:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, (A)

And sorry I could not travel both (B)

And be one traveler, long I stood (A)

And looked down one as far as I could (A)

To where it bent in the undergrowth; (B)

From the example above we can know this poem has 9 syllabel each line and the rhythm of the poem is
basically iambic, which means that there is one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The
most common use of iambs in poetry is in pentameter, which means that there are five “feet,” or units
of stressed and unstressed syllables, in the poem. But the poem of “The Road Not Taken” is in iambic
tetrameter, which means that there are only four feet (tetra = four). Besides there is also the other kinds
of rhythm that is anapestic, which means that there are two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed
syllable. We see the example lines :

To where | it bent| in the un|dergrowth

Each of the four feet in this line is iambic except for the third, because both “in” and “the” are
unstressed syllables, making the rhythm an anapest. Besides Robert Frost uses monosyllable line in this
poem, they are useful and not waste the space in the poem. We see some of the words such as “sigh,”
and “ages” convey hesitation about the choose of the road. There is one caesura used in fourth stanza
line 3, which reads, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I─”. The caesura function is to emphasis on “I.”
The speaker “I” show the feeling of hesitation, uncertainty about the choice, then it will related to the
next line “Took the one less traveled by” it explain that finally the speaker make his decision.

The stanzaic structure in every poem is important, because it can help to reveal the feeling and the place
of the poem. The lines of the poem assosiated the road in the wood. The poem’s lines also reveal the
confusion feeling.

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, and also stanzaic structure. 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. In conclusion, the different ways can reveal the meaning of the poem,
and the formalist approach is one of the possible choice