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; 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Elephant Swamp Trail

Elk Township New Jersey
October 20, 2025
Photograph courtesy/Daniel Kelly

Then took the other, 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,

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.

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. 

 

"The Road Not Taken"
(1915)
Robert Frost
(1874-1963)
Prolific American poet