Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

1. The Road Not Taken


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;               5

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 kept 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.