Analysis of I Saw Him on the Road Less Taken



I saw him on the road less taken.
The gentleman named Robert Frost.
While I was frail and quite forsaken.
He, most certainly, was not lost.

While he marched merrily with a fife.
I wore a knapsack on my back.
Burden carried from a distaff life.
Recklessly pursued without knack.

“How fare you maiden, on your way.
Traveling alone without a guide.
I hope your journey is without dismay.
Be careful of the paths that hide!”

I looked at him and saw him smile.
He had a twinkle in one eye.
His charming face seemed without a guile.
It made me shudder with a sigh.

How I since childhood squandered all.
Discouraged by advice given.
Unprepared for eventual fall.
Instead, was selfishly driven.

He sensed my thoughts; and he smiled again.
“Young Miss, you’ll find the road ahead.
Grants you chance of fortune to attain.
By changing course — that way, instead!”

Head nodding, and pointing to the right.
That Robert Frost seemed to make sense.
With quick steps he vanished — out of sight.
Leaving me wandering; quite tense.

The chance was mine to heed what was heard.
Or go astray — a stubborn lass.
I knew his kind words were not absurd,
I must confess it had pizazz.

The thorns pricked me; made me shed a tear.
And looking back, I saw Frost point.
Admittedly, I swear, there was fear.
Voice of reason made me listen.

Summoning strength, I gained new insight.
Road less taken makes a difference.
May keep one out of many a plight.
As a signpost — and a reference.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IAIA XJXJ KLKL MXMX XXXA KNKN
Poetic Form Quatrain  (80%)
Etheree  (35%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 111101110 01001101 111101010 11100111 111100101 1101111 10101011 10001011 11110111 100010101 1111010101 11010111 11110111 11010011 110110101 11110101 1111101 01010110 01101001 011110 111101101 11110101 111110101 11011101 110010101 11011111 111110111 10110011 011111111 11010101 111110101 11011101 011111101 01011111 010011111 11101110 10011111 111010100 111111001 10100100
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,481
Words 313
Sentences 39
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 113
Words per stanza (avg) 27

About this poem

Unlike the strict masculine tone of the ABAAB rhyme scheme of Robert Frost’s five lines, four-stanza 1916 poem “The Road Less Taken,” this poem, “I Saw Him on the Road Less Taken,” with its protagonist as an adventurous maiden, employs a softer, more gentle four lines, twelve-stanza ABAB rhyme scheme to depict the human journey on the byways of life as being more akin to that of John Bunyan’s 1678 allegory, “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” displaying the folly of human weaknesses, while revealing the boldness of hidden human strength in the audacity of fearlessness; to dare to take the Dolorosa Road, The Way of Suffering.  

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Written on January 11, 2022

Submitted by karlcfolkes on January 11, 2022

Modified by karlcfolkes

1:33 min read
1,257

Karl Constantine FOLKES

Retired educator of Jamaican ancestry with a lifelong interest in composing poetry dealing particularly with the metaphysics of self-reflection; completed a dissertation in Children’s Literature in 1995 at New York University entitled: An Analysis of Wilhelm Grimm’s “Dear Mili” Employing Von Franzian Methodological Processes. The subject of the dissertation concerned the process of Individuation. more…

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