Harvest-Home Song
OUR oats they are howed, and our barley’s reaped,Our hay is mowed, and our hovels heaped;Harvest home! harvest home!We’ll merrily roar out our harvest home!Harvest home! harvest home!We’ll merrily roar out our harvest home!We’ll merrily roar out our harvest home!
We cheated the parson, we’ll cheat him again;For why should the vicar have one in ten?One in ten! one in ten!For why should the vicar have one in ten?For why should the vicar have one in ten?For staying while dinner is cold and hot,And pudding and dumpling’s burnt to pot;Burnt to pot! burnt to pot!Till pudding and dumpling’s burnt to pot,Burnt to pot! burnt to pot!
We’ll drink off the liquor while we can stand,And hey for the honour of old England!Old England! old England!And hey for the honour of old England!Old England! old England!
Words in this poem
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Harvest-Home Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England, Project Gutenberg ebook #649; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Bell, Harvest-Home Song, in Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (1857), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #649, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/bell-ancient-poems/harvest-home-song.html, id L11953.
Form and metre
Harvest-Home Song is 22 lines in 3 verse paragraphs. It is in rhyming couplets, 82% of the lines. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 70%). 74% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.5 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBBBB reapedA · heapedA · homeB · homeB · homeB · homeB · homeB
- 2 AAAAABBBBB againA · tenA · tenA · tenA · tenA · hotB · potB · potB · potB · potB
- 3 AAAAA standA · englandA · englandA · englandA · englandA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| OUR oats they are howed, and our barley’s reaped, | 10 | /·····//˘· |
| Our hay is mowed, and our hovels heaped; | 9 | /····//˘· |
| Harvest home! harvest home! | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| We’ll merrily roar out our harvest home! | 9 | ·/˘··//˘· |
| Harvest home! harvest home! | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| We’ll merrily roar out our harvest home! | 9 | ·/˘··//˘· |
| We’ll merrily roar out our harvest home! | 9 | ·/˘··//˘· |
| We cheated the parson, we’ll cheat him again; | 11 | ·/˘·/˘···˘/ |
| For why should the vicar have one in ten? | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| One in ten! one in ten! | 6 | ······ |
| For why should the vicar have one in ten? | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| For why should the vicar have one in ten? | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| For staying while dinner is cold and hot, | 10 | ·/˘·/˘···· |
| And pudding and dumpling’s burnt to pot; | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| Burnt to pot! burnt to pot! | 6 | ······ |
| Till pudding and dumpling’s burnt to pot, | 9 | ·/˘·/˘··· |
| Burnt to pot! burnt to pot! | 6 | ······ |
| We’ll drink off the liquor while we can stand, | 10 | ····/˘···· |
| And hey for the honour of old England! | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Old England! old England! | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
| And hey for the honour of old England! | 10 | ····/˘··/˘ |
| Old England! old England! | 6 | ·/˘·/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.