If heaven were to do again, And on the pasture bars, I leaned to line the figures in Between the dotted starts, I should be tempted to forget, I fear, the Crown of Rule, The Scales of Trade, the Cross of Faith, As hardly worth renewal. For these have governed in our lives, And see how men have warred. The Cross, the Crown, the Scales may all As well have been the Sword.
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Authorship:
- by Robert Frost (1874 - 1963) [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 Stanley Grill (b. 1953), "The Peaceful Shepherd", 2021 [ counter-tenor, traverso, viola, cello, theorbo ], from The Peace of Wild Things (and other songs), no. 2, confirmed with an online score [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Malcolm Wren [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2023-01-11
Line count: 12
Word count: 73