The Road not Taken | Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)

The Road not Taken

Language: English

Our translations: GER

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.

Text Authorship:

by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963), "The Road not Taken", appears in Mountain Interval, first published 1916 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Herbert Elwell (1898 - 1974), "The Road not Taken", published 1942 [sung text not yet checked]
by Randall Thompson (1899 - 1984), "The Road not Taken", published 1959 [ SATB chorus and piano ], from Frostiana [sung text not yet checked]
by Douglas Gordon Weiland (b. 1954), "The Road not Taken", op. 67 no. 4 (2022-2023) [ baritone and piano ], from Seven Songs to Poems by Robert Frost, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 144