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.
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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):
- GER German (Deutsch) (Walter A. Aue) , "Der nicht gegangene Weg", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
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