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What are some techniques or language features in Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" that show that the success of a journey depends on the traveller?

Excellent question! Your inquiry evokes one of the primary debates about this classic poem by Robert Frost. This debate hinges on the idea that in "The Road Not Taken" (1916), the persona, or the traveler-speaker of the poem, surveys two identical paths in a "wood," or forest.


Yes, the paths are identical!


Though most readers view that the poem celebrates the "less-traveled" path, and thereby individuality and nonconformity, the persona clearly states that the paths...

Excellent question! Your inquiry evokes one of the primary debates about this classic poem by Robert Frost. This debate hinges on the idea that in "The Road Not Taken" (1916), the persona, or the traveler-speaker of the poem, surveys two identical paths in a "wood," or forest.


Yes, the paths are identical!


Though most readers view that the poem celebrates the "less-traveled" path, and thereby individuality and nonconformity, the persona clearly states that the paths are equal. The persona claims that prior travelers had worn each path "really about the same," and that the roads "both that morning equally lay" (10-11). One interpretation is that the persona is dishonest with himself about the significance of his choice of path; in the poem's conclusion, the persona considers how in the future, he will lie to himself and say, "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference" (18-20). The poem thereby suggests that though the paths we take and decisions we make in life seem various and unique, they're all ultimately equal. After we choose our path, however, we tell ourselves that our path was unique, when really it was equivalent to any other path. There is no real success of the traveler then, since there is no real distinction between the two paths.


Now that we've established a stance on the poem's theme, let's analyze how Frost uses literary techniques to evoke this theme. The most apparent technique he uses here is verbal irony, or when a speaker says something opposite his or her actual meaning. The persona asserts that his choice of path has made "all the difference," although there exists no difference in the two paths (20). Frost also uses rhyme to emphasize key ideas. In the last stanza, he rhymes "sigh," "I," and "by" (16, 18–19). This could indicate the persona's regret about lying to himself.


I hope this helped.

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