A Harvest Song
The gray bulk of the granaries uploom against the sky;The harvest moon has dwindled--they have housed the corn and rye;And now the idle reapers lounge against the bolted doors:Without are hungry harvesters, within enchanted stores.
Lo, they had bread while they were out a-toiling in the sun:Now they are strolling beggars, for the harvest work is done.They are the gods of husbandry: they gather in the sheaves,But when the autumn strips the wood, they’re drifting with the leaves.They plow and sow and gather in the glory of the corn;They know the noon, they know the pitiless rains before the morn;They know the sweep of furrowed fields that darken in the gloom--A little while their hope on earth, then evermore the tomb.
Words in this poem
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- morn n.
- The first part of the day; the morning; -- used chiefly in poetry. [OE. morwen, morgen, AS. morgen; akin to D. morgen, OS. morgan, G. morgen, Icel. morginn, morgunn, Sw. morgon, Dan. morgen, Goth. maúrgins. Cf. Morrow, Morning.]
- evermore adv.
- During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Harvest Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from The man with the hoe, and other poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #67012; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Edwin Markham, A Harvest Song, in The Man with the Hoe, and Other Poems (1899), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #67012, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/markham-man-with-hoe/a-harvest-song.html, id L24799.
Form and metre
A Harvest Song is 12 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
See other poems in iambic heptameter.
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 AABB skyA · ryeA · doorsB · storesB
- 2 AABBCCDD sunA · doneA · sheavesB · leavesB · cornC · mornC · gloomD · tombD
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The gray bulk of the granaries uploom against the sky; | 13 | ············· |
| The harvest moon has dwindled--they have housed the corn and rye; | 14 | ·/˘··/˘······· |
| And now the idle reapers lounge against the bolted doors: | 14 | ···/˘/˘····/˘· |
| Without are hungry harvesters, within enchanted stores. | 14 | ···/˘/˘˘··˘/˘· |
| Lo, they had bread while they were out a-toiling in the sun: | 14 | ·········/˘··· |
| Now they are strolling beggars, for the harvest work is done. | 14 | ···/˘/˘··/˘··· |
| They are the gods of husbandry: they gather in the sheaves, | 14 | ·····/˘˘·/˘··· |
| But when the autumn strips the wood, they’re drifting with the leaves. | 14 | ···/˘····/˘··· |
| They plow and sow and gather in the glory of the corn; | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘··· |
| They know the noon, they know the pitiless rains before the morn; | 14 | ·······/˘····· |
| They know the sweep of furrowed fields that darken in the gloom-- | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘··· |
| A little while their hope on earth, then evermore the tomb. | 14 | ·/˘······/˘··· |
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.