The Road Not Taken

¹Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

²And sorry I could not travel both

³And be one traveler, long I stood

⁴And looked down one as far as I could

⁵To where it bent in the undergrowth;

⁶Then took the other, as just as fair,

⁷And having perhaps the better claim,

⁸Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

⁹Though as for that the passing there

¹⁰Had worn them really about the same,

¹¹And both that morning equally lay

¹²In leaves no step had trodden black.

¹³Oh, I kept the first for another day!

¹⁴Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

¹⁵I doubted if I should ever come back.

¹⁶I shall be telling this with a sigh

¹⁷Somewhere ages and ages hence:

¹⁸Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

¹⁹I took the one less traveled by,

²⁰And that has made all the difference.