by Edgar Lee Masters (1868 - 1950)
Jonathan Houghton
Language: English
There is the caw of a crow, And the hesitant song of a thrush. There is the tinkle of a cowbell far away, And the voice of a plowman on Shipley's hill. The forest beyond the orchard is still With midsummer stillness; And along the road a wagon chuckles, Loaded with corn, going to Atterbury. And an old man sits under a tree asleep, And an old woman crosses the road, Coming from the orchard with a bucket of blackberries. And a boy lies in the grass Near the feet of the old man, And looks up at the sailing clouds, And longs, and longs, and longs For what, he knows not: For manhood, for life, for the unknown world! Then thirty years passed, And the boy returned worn out by life And found the orchard vanished, And the forest gone, And the house made over, And the roadway filled with dust from automobiles -- And himself desiring The Hill!
Authorship:
- by Edgar Lee Masters (1868 - 1950), "Jonathan Houghton", appears in Spoon River Anthology, first published 1916 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Gino Negri (b. 1919), "Jonathan Houghton", published 1948 [ soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone, and bass solo voices, SATB chorus, and orchestra ], from Antologia di Spoon River [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2008-09-26
Line count: 24
Word count: 159