The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost (1874-1963)



TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same, 10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back. 15

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 20

Robert Frost’s life was full of trouble of all kinds, and yet this man wrote some of the best loved poetry in America. He won the Pulitzer Prize four times and was the recipient of numerous other awards. I have always been drawn to Frost’s poems for their natural, earthy flavor. There is little pretense in Frost. I love Frost's work for how it speaks to me which is part of his charm: I wonder about the roads I never took in my life, and looking back I see that that has made all the difference.

His poem, “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” voices my feeling that “I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep.”


Google Frost’s poems and enjoy

Sue