ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
1 Two roads diverged in a yellow
wood,
2 And sorry I could not travel
both
3 And be one traveler, long I
stood
4 And looked down one as far
as I could
5 To where it bent in the undergrowth;
6 Then took the other, as just
as fair,
7 And having perhaps the better
claim,
8 Because it was grassy and wanted
wear;
9 Though as for that the passing
there
10 Had worn them really about the same,
11 And both that morning equally lay
12 In leaves no step had trodden black.
13 Oh, I kept the first for another day!
14 Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
15 I doubted if I should ever come back.
16 I shall be telling this with a sigh
17 Somewhere ages and ages hence:
18 Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
19 I took the one less traveled by,
20 And that has made all the difference.
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The Tuft of Flowers
1 I went to turn the grass once
after one
2 Who mowed it in the dew before
the sun.
3 The dew was gone that made his
blade so keen
4 Before I came to view the levelled
scene.
5 I looked for him behind an isle
of trees;
6 I listened for his whetstone
on the breeze.
7 But he had gone his way, the
grass all mown,
8 And I must be, as he had been,--alone,
9 `As all must be,' I said within
my heart,
10 `Whether they work together or apart.'
11 But as I said it, swift there passed me
by
12 On noiseless wing a 'wildered butterfly,
13 Seeking with memories grown dim o'er night
14 Some resting flower of yesterday's delight.
15 And once I marked his flight go round and
round,
16 As where some flower lay withering on
the ground.
17 And then he flew as far as eye could see,
18 And then on tremulous wing came back to
me.
19 I thought of questions that have no reply,
20 And would have turned to toss the grass
to dry;
21 But he turned first, and led my eye to
look
22 At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,
23 A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had
spared
24 Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.
25 I left my place to know them by their name,
26 Finding them butterfly weed when I came.
27 The mower in the dew had loved them thus,
28 By leaving them to flourish, not for us,
29 Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to
him.
30 But from sheer morning gladness at the
brim.
31 The butterfly and I had lit upon,
32 Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,
33 That made me hear the wakening birds around,
34 And hear his long scythe whispering to
the ground,
35 And feel a spirit kindred to my own;
36 So that henceforth I worked no more alone;
37 But glad with him, I worked as with his
aid,
38 And weary, sought at noon with him the
shade;
39 And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly
speech
40 With one whose thought I had not hoped
to reach.
41 `Men work together,' I told him from the
heart,
42 `Whether they work together or apart.'
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Fire and Ice
1 Some say the world will end
in fire,
2 Some say in ice.
3 From what I've tasted of desire
4 I hold with those who favor
fire.
5 But if it had to perish twice,
6 I think I know enough of hate
7 To know that for destruction
ice
8 Is also great
9 And would suffice.
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Dust of Snow
1 The way a crow
2 Sh ook down on me
3 The dust of snow
4 From a hemlock tree
5 Has given my heart
6 A change of mood
7 And saved some part
8 Of a day I had rued.
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After Apple Picking
2 Toward heaven still,
3 And there's a barrel that I
didn't fill
4 Beside it, and there may be
two or three
5 Apples I didn't pick upon some
bough.
6 But I am done with apple-picking
now.
7 Essence of winter sleep is
on the night,
8 The scent of apples: I am drowsing
off.
9 I cannot rub the strangeness
from my sight
10 I got from looking through a pane of glass
11 I skimmed this morning from the drinking
trough
12 And held against the world of hoary grass.
13 It melted, and I let it fall and break.
14 But I was well
15 Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
16 And I could tell
17 What form my dreaming was about to take.
18 Magnified apples appear and disappear,
19 Stem end and blossom end,
20 And every fleck of russet showing clear.
21 My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
22 It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
23 I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
24 And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
25 The rumbling sound
26 Of load on load of apples coming in.
27 For I have had too much
28 Of apple-picking: I am overtired
29 Of the great harvest I myself desired.
30 There were ten thousand thousand fruit
to touch,
31 Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let
fall.
32 For all
33 That struck the earth,
34 No matter if not bruised or spiked with
stubble,
35 Went surely to the cider-apple heap
36 As of no worth.
37 One can see what will trouble
38 This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it
is.
39 Were he not gone,
40 The woodchuck could say whether it's like
his
41 Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
42 Or just some human sleep.
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Nothing Gold Can Stay
1 Nature's first green is gold,
2 Her hardest hue to hold.
3 Her early leaf's a flower;
4 But only so an hour.
5 Then leaf subsides to leaf.
6 So Eden sank to grief,
7 So dawn goes down to day.
8 Nothing gold can stay.
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STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
1 Whose woods these are I think
I know.
2 His house is in the village
though;
3 He will not see me stopping
here
4 To watch his woods fill up
with snow.
5 My little horse must think it
queer
6 To stop without a farmhouse
near
7 Between the woods and frozen
lake
8 The darkest evening of the
year.
9 He gives his harness bells a
shake
10 To ask if there is some mistake.
11 The only other sound's the
sweep
12 Of easy wind and downy flake.
13 The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
14 But I have promises to keep,
15 And miles to go before I sleep,
16 And miles to go before I sleep.
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