Wedding reading
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is a poem read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about a minute and a half read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
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.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
What it is about
The last three lines are why anybody asks for it. Frost is looking back at a choice from years down the road, which is the view a wedding is borrowing.
Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: two roads diverged in a yellow wood · the one less traveled by · choosing · a couple who took the long way round · an autumn wedding · an outdoor wedding · a second marriage · well known.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “The Road Not Taken” take to read aloud?
“The Road Not Taken” takes about a minute and a half read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “The Road Not Taken”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “The Road Not Taken” runs about a minute and a half, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “The Road Not Taken” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.