Literary Terms Used in Robert Frost’s Poems “The Road Not Taken” “Love and a Question”

Imagery Imagery is used to refer to a descriptive language that evokes sensory experience

“The Road Not Taken” -Imagery examples- ★“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...” ★“…To where it bent in the undergrowth….” ★“And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black….” Describes how the paths look , which enables the reader to visualize the paths.

“Love and a Question” -Imagery examples ★ “Within, the bride in the dusk alone Bent over the open fire, Her face rose-red with the glowing coal…” You can picture what the bride was doing and how she looked bending over an open fire. Maybe she is bent over a fire place? Her cheeks are red and she is alone?

Personification Gives non-human things, human characteristics or traits

“The Road Not Taken” -Personification- ★ “Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear;…” {Speaking about the other path} The path cannot want something.

First Person Uses the words : I, Me, You, Us, etc. pronouns and verbs used to refer to the speaker or writer of the language in which they occur

“The Road Not Taken” -First Person- “sorry I could not travel both…” “Oh, I kept the first for another day!...” “I doubted if I should ever come back.” “I took the one less traveled by” The speaker repeatedly says the word “I” which you can infer he is speaking about himself.

“Love and a Question” -First person- ★ “ ‘Let us look at the sky, And question what of the night to be, Stranger, you and I.’…” This is a quotation inside the poem that is mostly written in third person. The speaker quotes when the bridegroom says I, you, and us.

Third Person pronouns and verbs that are used to refer to something other than the speaker

“Love and a Question” “The bridegroom came forth into the porch…” “Her face rose-red with the glowing coal…” “But whether or not a man was asked To mar the love of two By harboring woe in the bridal house, The bridegroom wished he knew….” The speaker speaks of people other than himself. The words he, she, a man, & the are used.