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 the end Of a love or a season?

Reluctance is about man’s unwillingness to accept life as it flows. The poet having wandered over fields and walls (suggesting civilization) and hills and woods (suggesting wilderness) is on his way back home. He is saying that he has seen and experienced all aspects of life and is now home. His journey through life has come to a close. ‘Climbing hills’ refers to the difficulties faced in life and ‘descended’ perhaps to the compromises one has to make in life. The mood of the poem is reflective. The use of words such as ended, dead, lone, gone, wither, aching, all go to create this mood. His dull mood is reflected in nature too, the trees are barren, the snow is crusted, the dead leaves lie in heaps and the last of the blossoms are withered.