I Walk the Unfrequented Road

I walk the unfrequented road with open eye and ear;

I watch afield the farmer load the bounty of the year.

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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.

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I gather where I did not sow, and bend the mystic sheaf,

the amber air, the river’s flow, the rustle of the leaf.

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A beauty springtime never knew haunts all the quiet ways,

and sweeter shines the landscape through its veil of autumn haze.

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I face the hills, the streams, the wood, and feel with all akin;

my heart expands; their fortitude and peace and joy flow in.