Robert Ling

Robert Ling Poems

The Best Poem Of Robert Ling

The Dog Not Watched

Two dogs diverged, running, in a wood,
and sorry I could not watch them both,
and be one watcher, long I stood,
and watched down one, as far as I could,
to where it faded in the undergrowth.

Then watched the other, just as fair,
and having perhaps the better claim,
because it was well -bred and wire-haired,
though as for they that can pass there,
had worn the foliar road about the same,

And both that morning equally play,
In leaves no step had trodden black,
Oh, I marked the first for another day,
yet knowing how dogs run the way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh,
somewhere ages and ages hence,
two dogs were running the road, and I,
I choose the one less preferred by,
and that has made all the difference.

Robert Ling Comments