American vs British spelling for an engraving.

[PILinOz]

Having a dilemma over a gift and hoping you can advise.

I want to get lines from a poem engraved on to a gift for a colleague. They are from a poem called “The Road Not Taken” by American poet Robert Frost. The lines are
“ Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

So, for the engraving, should I stick to the original American spelling of “traveled” and stay true to the original poem? Or, as we are in the UK, should it be changed to “travelled”

I should note, that my colleague is very pedantic when it comes to spelling and grammar so I want to get this right!

Thanks in advance.

I would keep to the original. That will impress a pedant!

Agree, keep the original spelling and enclose a note explaining why.

For myself, also a bit of a pedant, I would want the UK spelling because otherwise my eye would always be drawn to that word. For a pedantic friend, I think either would do as long as they know it's intentional and considered.

personally I'd use the English spelling since we are in England

Put "traveled (sic)"

😆😆

Aargh! It looks like even the pendants are divided on this 😩

I would go with original!

Oh God, I hope this is a joke! You should definitely keep the original spelling, OP, as I’m sure all true pedants would agree

I would go with the original because you are quoting the authors words.

Original spelling.

I think you’ll have to keep the American spelling. Is the recipient American?

Assuming your colleague is English, I’d use the English spelling. Whilst I understand (and could accept) the reasons for the American original my the would still be drawn to the word - and not in a good way.

If the colleague is American then 100% I’d use the American version, no quibbles.

If you keep the poem in quotation marks perhaps to signify those were the original
author’s words?

The original spelling.

The original spelling is not “wrong” as such, so I would be ok using it.

The recipient is English

It's a quote, so therefore should be the original spelling.

More importantly you’ve missed out the word “yellow” 😱

Nope, it’s a quotation.

sighs pedantically

Actually I'm changing my vote. If you are using quotation marks (which of course you should), then use the original spelling.

Keep the US spelling.

Will the recipient know it’s a quote and know about the different ways of spelling that word?

Yes, she definitely will know. She’s very familiar with the poem and will know about the different spellings