The Last Furrow
The Spirit of Earth, with still restoring hands,’Mid ruin moves, in glimmering chasm gropes,And mosses mantle and the bright flower opes;But Death the Ploughman wanders in all lands,And to the last of Earth his furrow stands.The grave is never hidden; fearful hopesFollow the dead upon the fading slopes,And there wild memories meet upon the sands.
When willows fling their banners to the plain,When rumor of winds and sound of sudden showersDisturb the dream of winter--all in vainThe grasses hurry to the graves, the flowersToss their wild torches on their windy towers;Yet are the bleak graves lonely in the rain.
Words in this poem
- ploughman n.
- One who plows, or who holds and guides a plow; hence, a husbandman. Chaucer.
- fading n.
- An Irish dance; also, the burden of a song.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Last Furrow 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, The Last Furrow, 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/the-last-furrow.html, id L24753.
Form and metre
The Last Furrow is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic 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 A-BAABBA handsA · gropes · opesB · landsA · standsA · hopesB · slopesB · sandsA
- 2 ABABBA plainA · showersB · vainA · flowersB · towersB · rainA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The Spirit of Earth, with still restoring hands, | 10 | ·/····˘/˘· |
| ’Mid ruin moves, in glimmering chasm gropes, | 10 | ·/··/˘˘/˘· |
| And mosses mantle and the bright flower opes; | 10 | ·/˘/˘···/· |
| But Death the Ploughman wanders in all lands, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| And to the last of Earth his furrow stands. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The grave is never hidden; fearful hopes | 10 | ···/˘/˘/˘· |
| Follow the dead upon the fading slopes, | 10 | /˘·····/˘· |
| And there wild memories meet upon the sands. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| When willows fling their banners to the plain, | 10 | ·/···/˘··· |
| When rumor of winds and sound of sudden showers | 11 | ·/˘·····/˘/ |
| Disturb the dream of winter--all in vain | 10 | ˘/···/˘··· |
| The grasses hurry to the graves, the flowers | 11 | ·/˘/˘····/˘ |
| Toss their wild torches on their windy towers; | 11 | ···/˘··/˘/˘ |
| Yet are the bleak graves lonely in the rain. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
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.