Harvest Moon
“Hush!” was my whisperAt the stair-topWhen the waggoners were down belowHome from the barley-crop.Through the high windowLooked the harvest moon,While the waggoners sangA harvest tune,--“Hush!” was my whisper whenMarjory steptDown from her attic-room,A true-love-adept.
“Fill a can, fill a can,”Waggoners of heart were they,“Harvest-home, harvest-home,Barleycorn is home to-day.” ...“Marjory, hush now--Harvest--you hear?”--Red was the moon’s roseOn the full year,The cobwebs shook, so wellDid the waggoners sing--“Hush!”--there was beauty atThat harvesting.
Words in this poem
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Harvest Moon is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, 1908-1919, Project Gutenberg ebook #51575; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Drinkwater, Harvest Moon, in Poems, 1908-1919 (1919), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #51575, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/drinkwater-poems/harvest-moon.html, id L23107.
Form and metre
Harvest Moon is 24 lines in 2 stanzas of 12 lines each. The metre is dactylic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%).
See other poems in dactylic dimeter.
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 -A-A-B-B-C-C whisper · topA · below · cropA · window · moonB · sang · tuneB · when · steptC · room · adeptC
- 2 -A-A-B-B-C-C can · theyA · home · dayA · now · hearB · rose · yearB · well · singC · at · harvestingC
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 dactylic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| “Hush!” was my whisper | 5 | ···/˘ |
| At the stair-top | 4 | ···· |
| When the waggoners were down below | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Home from the barley-crop. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Through the high window | 5 | ···/˘ |
| Looked the harvest moon, | 5 | ··/˘· |
| While the waggoners sang | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| A harvest tune,-- | 4 | ·/˘· |
| “Hush!” was my whisper when | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Marjory stept | 4 | /˘˘· |
| Down from her attic-room, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| A true-love-adept. | 5 | ···˘/ |
| “Fill a can, fill a can,” | 6 | ······ |
| Waggoners of heart were they, | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| “Harvest-home, harvest-home, | 6 | /˘·/˘· |
| Barleycorn is home to-day.” ... | 7 | /˘˘···· |
| “Marjory, hush now-- | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Harvest--you hear?”-- | 4 | /˘·· |
| Red was the moon’s rose | 5 | ····· |
| On the full year, | 4 | ···· |
| The cobwebs shook, so well | 6 | ·/···· |
| Did the waggoners sing-- | 6 | ··/˘˘· |
| “Hush!”--there was beauty at | 6 | ···/˘· |
| That harvesting. | 4 | ·/˘˘ |
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.