Aftermath
When the summer fields are mown,When the birds are fledged and flown,And the dry leaves strew the path;With the falling of the snow,With the cawing of the crow,Once again the fields we mowAnd gather in the aftermath.
Not the sweet, new grass with flowersIs this harvesting of ours;Not the upland clover bloom;But the rowen mired with weeds,Tangled tufts from marsh and meads,Where the poppy drops its seedsIn the silence and the gloom.
Words in this poem
- mown p. p.
- Cut down by mowing, as grass; deprived of grass by mowing; as, a mown field.
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
- rowen n.
- A stubble field left unplowed till late in the autumn, that it may be cropped by cattle. [Cf. E. rough, OE. row, rowe.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Aftermath is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Project Gutenberg ebook #1365; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Aftermath, in The Complete Poetical Works (1839–1882), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1365, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/longfellow-poems/aftermath.html, id L17726.
Form and metre
Aftermath is 14 lines in 2 stanzas of 7 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABCCCB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.2 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 21% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABCCCB mownA · flownA · pathB · snowC · crowC · mowC · aftermathB
- 2 AABCCCB flowersA · oursA · bloomB · weedsC · meadsC · seedsC · gloomB
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| When the summer fields are mown, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| When the birds are fledged and flown, | 7 | ······· |
| And the dry leaves strew the path; | 7 | ······· |
| With the falling of the snow, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| With the cawing of the crow, | 7 | ······· |
| Once again the fields we mow | 7 | ·˘/···· |
| And gather in the aftermath. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Not the sweet, new grass with flowers | 8 | ······/˘ |
| Is this harvesting of ours; | 8 | ··/˘˘·/˘ |
| Not the upland clover bloom; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| But the rowen mired with weeds, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Tangled tufts from marsh and meads, | 7 | /˘····· |
| Where the poppy drops its seeds | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| In the silence and the gloom. | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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.