The road not taken

Robert Frost

Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” was first published in the August 1915 issue of “The Atlantic Monthly” and later published as the first poem in Frost’s 1916 collection “Mountain Interval”. The inspiration for the poem came from a walk he took with the writer Edward Thomas during the few years that Frost lived in England.

Robert Lee Frost was born on 26 March 1874 in San Francisco, California, US, and he died on 29 January 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts, US, at the age of 88.

A poet and playwright, Frost was published in England before he was published in the US. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech, he frequently wrote about settings from rural life in New England in the early 20th century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes.

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Posted: 15 April 2023
Word length: 125
Video length: 1:59

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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