Reluctance

Source

Source: Project Gutenberg eBooks #3021 (A Boy's Will, 1913), #3026 (North of Boston, 1914) and #29345 (Mountain Interval, 1916) Source URL: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3021 Public domain basis: Complete texts of Frost's first three books. Public domain (published 1913–1916). Coverage: Complete individual poem extracted from parent edition frost-early-poems at bytes 33226-35066; checksum 142a638dcba186352fa9b3840e0fb73876f4d546f12fb38d7c8de8eb9603201b.

# Reluctance

Reluctance

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, 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 question '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 and accept the end Of a love or a season?

Produced by David Reed

NORTH OF BOSTON

By Robert Frost

TO E. M. F. THIS BOOK OF PEOPLE

THE PASTURE

I'M going out to clean the pasture spring; I'll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I sha'n't be gone long.--You come too. I'm going out to fetch the little calf That's standing by the mother. It's so young, It totters when she licks it with her tongue. I sha'n't be gone long.--You come too.

CONTENTS

Mending Wall The Death of the Hired Man The Mountain A Hundred Collars Home Burial The Black Cottage Blueberries A Servant to Servants After Apple-picking The Code The Generations of Men The Housekeeper The Fear The Self-seeker The Wood-pile Good Hours