Explain the presentation style of the poem.
Frost uses a very simple style of presentation for this poem. The language is plain, using words people can easily understand, such as "yellow wood." It's almost as if he is talking to the reader in a conversational way.
The poem is divided into four five-line stanzas and relies on end rhymes. For example, in the first stanza, the simple words "would," "could," and "stood" rhyme, as do "both" and undergrowth."
Because of the simplicity of the poem, devices such as repetitions and exclamation points stand out. The narrator repeats the word "and" three times in the first stanza, accentuating the narrator's indecision as he longs to go down both paths, wishing he could take both, but knowing he has to make a choice.
In the third stanza, the exclamation "oh" and the exclamation mark stop us on the following line:
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
The narrator at this point shows that he also very much wants to go down the road he hasn't picked. He hopes to do so "another day."
The "ands" return in the final stanza, along with a long hyphen mark: the poet ends by saying the road he has taken has made all the difference, but we still feel some of his struggle in making his decision.
The poem has remained popular because of the simplicity of its language and its theme--when we come to crossroads in life, we have to make a decision. For the poet, taking the road less traveled--often interpreted as following the less conventional path in life--made a big difference to him.
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