Robert Frost

The Roads Not Taken*

1. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

2. 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,

3. 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.

4. 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 travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

* Prokkorova V.I, Soshtavskaya E.S. Stylistic Analysis. Moscow, 1976, pp. 28-29.

WALT WHITMAN

I Hear America Singing*

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it,

should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures

his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for

work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat,

the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his hench,

the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter's song, the plowboy's on his way

in the morning, or at noon intermission or

at sundown,

The delicions singing of the mother, or of the young

wife at world, or of the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what, belongs to him or her and

to none else,

The day what belongs to the day - at night the party

of young fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong

melodious songs.

*Anthology of English and American Verse. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1972, p. 485.