Robert Frost: Beloved Poet of the Humble Masses

Robert Frost (1874-1963), America’s most beloved National poet, is known for his poetry of rural life, the struggles of commoners, and the human-Nature bond. Frost has endeared himself to generations of readers through his simple style that is accessible to everyone and hides beneath it delightful founts of great wisdom. Here is one of Frost’s most popular poems that reflects the unending human dilemma of making choices in life.

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.