Poetry is a type of art that enables the poet to communicate feelings and ideas through the use of form and literary elements. Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" are two poems that have withstood the test of time. These two poems, which both examine the human condition, are well known for their effective use of literary tropes and structure. While addressing the 5Ws, this essay will compare and contrast the form/structure, literary/rhetorical devices used in both poems.
The poem "The Raven" has an eighteen-stanza structure with a continuous ABCBBB rhyme pattern. It is a narrative poem. The repeating "nevermore" at the conclusion of each stanza adds to the poem's overall tone of sadness and gloom. The repetition of the first and last syllables in the second and third lines produces a haunting rhythm. In contrast, "The Road Not Taken" has a four-stanza format with five lines each stanza and an ABAAB rhyme scheme. The poem has a quintain form, which is a five-line format with an iambic tetrameter meter. The poem's structure and simplicity both add to its strong message about making decisions in life.
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Poe uses personification, metaphor, and alliteration in "The Raven" to heighten the poem's menacing atmosphere. For example, the alliteration in the phrases "weak and weary" and "doubting, dreaming dreams" highlights the narrator's fatigue and uncertainty. The poem's ominous atmosphere is further enhanced by the personification of the Raven, a bird that is typically connected with death. In contrast, "The Road Not Taken" uses metaphor and imagery to illustrate its point on choosing decisions in life. Frost uses imagery to compare making tough decisions that affect one's life to the speaker's choice to choose the less-traveled path in this