Out through the fields and the woods And over the walls I have wended; I have climbed the hills of view [And looked at the world, and descended; I have come by the highway home,]1 And lo, it is ended. The leaves are all dead on the ground, Save those that the oak is keeping To ravel them one by one And let them go scraping and creeping Out over the crusted snow, When others are sleeping. And the dead leaves lie huddled and still, No longer blown hither and thither; The last lone aster is gone; The flowers of the witch-hazel wither; The heart is still aching to seek, But the feet questions “Whither?” Ah, when to the heart of man Was it ever less than a treason To go with the drift of things, To yield with a grace to reason, And bow and accept the end Of a love or a season?
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View text without footnotes1 omitted by Clearfield.
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963), "Reluctance", appears in A Boy's Will [author's text not yet checked 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 Andrea Clearfield (b. 1960), "Reluctance", first performed 2013 [ mezzo-soprano, baritone, and piano ], from The Drift of Things; Winter Songs, no. 1, Self-published, Angelfire Press ; in Part I, "End of the Road" [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Penny Rodriguez , "The Highway Home" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Joost van der Linden [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2017-11-12
Line count: 24
Word count: 156
