Singing the Living Tradition ‎#53

53. I Walk the Unfrequented Road

1 I walk the unfrequented road
with open eye and ear;
I watch afield the farmer load
the bounty of the year.

2 I filch the fruit of no one’s toil —
no trespasser am I —
and yet I reap from every soil
and from the boundless sky.

3 I gather where I did not sow,
and bend the mystic sheaf,
the amber air, the river’s flow,
the rustle of the leaf.

4 A beauty springtime never knew
haunts all the quiet ways,
and sweeter shines the landscape through
its veil of autumn haze.

5 I face the hills, the streams, the wood,
and feel with all akin;
my heart expands; their fortitude
and peace and joy flow in.

Text Information

• First Line: I walk the unfrequented road
• Title: I Walk the Unfrequented Road
• Author: Frederick Lucian Hosmer, 1840-1929
• Meter: C.M.
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1993
• Topic: Transcending Mystery and Wonder: Autumn; Gratitude; Nature and the Countryside
• Source: Stanton Coit's Social Worship II, 1913

Tune Information

• Name: CONSOLATION
• Meter: C.M.
• Key: f minor
• Source: John Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music, Part II, 1813