Every semester at MIT, a hundred or so students suffer through the torture of 5.12, Organic Chemistry 1. The plaguing indecision that strikes during every test inspired me to write this poem based on “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost.

The Mechanism Not Taken

Two arrows diverged from a double bond

And lacking time to attempt both

And pen in hand, long I frowned

Not knowing with which carbocation to respond

Oh, how I did these pi bonds loath!

I shall be telling this with a cry,

Somewhere finals and finals hence:

Two arrows diverged from a bond, and I—

I chose the product less favored by,

And that has made all the difference.