Rhyme in The Road Not Taken

Frost controls the sounds of his words to produce beautiful phrases that, in many cases, trigger a specific effect. In this phrase, the three syllables beginning with l fluctuate from a hard e vowel sound to a hard a sound back to a hard e sound. The effect is a sonic symmetry that reflects the symmetry of the image: two paths equally covered in fall leaves.

“The Road Not Taken” employs iambic tetrameter, a metrical scheme that features four beats to the line. This meter gives the poem a sense of propulsion and forward movement, fitting for a poem about a traveler. The rhyme scheme in each of the four stanzas is ABAAB. The third A rhyme, which causes each stanza to lag by one line, gives the poem a sense of deliberation. These moment of hesitation before the resolution of each stanza represent the speaker’s hesitation in choosing a road.