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In much of his poetry, Frost drew on traditional meters, though without employing them in a strict or rigid way. The same is true for “The Road Not Taken,” which Frost composed in lines that consistently carry four strong beats, but which vary in the overall number and distribution of syllables. As an example, consider the opening stanza (lines 1–5):

     Two roads / di-verged / in a yell- / ow wood,
     And so- / rry I could / not tra- / vel both
     And be / one trav- / el-er, long / I stood
     And looked / down one / as far / as I could
     To where / it bent / in the un- / der-growth

Each line has four clearly stressed beats. This rhythm is generally iambic, meaning that it’s largely composed of metrical feet that contain one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Yet every line contains an extra syllable, which prevents the meter from falling into a perfectly regular iambic rhythm. Furthermore, these extra syllables appear at different points in each line. Lines 1, 3, and 5 each feature an extra syllable in the third foot. By contrast, line 2 has an extra syllable in the second foot, and line 4 has an extra syllable in the fourth. This rhythmic irregularity communicates a subtle instability at the heart of the poem, one that reflects the searching quality of the speaker as they agonize over which path to take. They try to rationalize their decision, even while recognizing that both paths have equally unknowable outcomes.

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