Two branches diverged in a yellow code,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one processor, long I stalled
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it jumped in the code;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was truthy and wanted compare;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that condition 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 cycles and cycles hence:
Two branches diverged in a code, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Back in 2019, I wrote this while studying for a branch prediction midterm in UIUC’s CS 233 - Computer Architecture. In general, I really adore Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken and have often thought about it at various stages of life, alongside his other famous poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Zenpencils has a beautiful comic version of the poem, and it’s always fun reading the rift in interpretations of the poem.