...............ALONE..........

From childhood's hour I have not been


As others were; I have not seen


As others saw; I could not bring


My passions from a common spring.


From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow; I could not awaken


My heart to joy at the same tone;


And all I loved, I loved alone.


Then- in my childhood, in the dawn


Of a most stormy life- was drawn


From every depth of good and ill


The mystery which binds me still:


From the torrent, or the fountain,


From the red cliff of the mountain,


From the sun that round me rolled

In its autumn tint of gold,


From the lightning in the sky


As it passed me flying by,


From the thunder and the storm,


And the cloud that took the form


(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view.

                                          ...THE ROAD NOT TAKEN...

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 marked 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.