The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

• 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,

• 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.

Footnotes

At first sight, it looks like that poem suggests how not following the crowd — taking the road less traveled by — has made all the difference in the poet’s life. On the other hand, some suggests that the poem regards the irony about people finding solace in arbitrary decisions.

Whichever way you go, you’re sure to miss something good on the other path.