101 Poems, Number 74

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

74: “The Road Not Taken,”* 1916, by Robert Frost (1874–1963)

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”—

Who knew this line would one day see

(Although it is, of course, so good)

A sort of immortality?

I memorized this Way Back When—

And “made” my students learn it, too.

But memorizing’s not a sin!

Such lines will often stay with you—

But only if you so desire.

And so I practice this one still—

No wish to see its date expire!

It’s kind of like a daffodil:

A flower that arrives in spring—

Then soon—too soon—just disappears.

And don’t you wish that blooming thing

Would linger all throughout your years?

And so it is with perfect verse—

You take some time—you learn the text—

Yes, often you must still rehearse—

Then look for lines to study next!

*good recent book about the poem: The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong, by David Orr (2015)