Seed-Time and Harvest
As o'er his furrowed fields which lieBeneath a coldly dropping sky,Yet chill with winter's melted snow,The husbandman goes forth to sow,
Thus, Freedom, on the bitter blastThe ventures of thy seed we cast,And trust to warmer sun and rainTo swell the germs and fill the grain.
Who calls thy glorious service hard?Who deems it not its own reward?Who, for its trials, counts it less.A cause of praise and thankfulness?
It may not be our lot to wieldThe sickle in the ripened field;Nor ours to hear, on summer eves,The reaper's song among the sheaves.
Yet where our duty's task is wroughtIn unison with God's great thought,The near and future blend in one,And whatsoe'er is willed, is done!
And ours the grateful service whenceComes day by day the recompense;The hope, the trust, the purpose stayed,The fountain and the noonday shade.
And were this life the utmost span,The only end and aim of man,Better the toil of fields like theseThan waking dream and slothful ease.
But life, though falling like our grain,Like that revives and springs again;And, early called, how blest are theyWho wait in heaven their harvest-day!
Words in this poem
- coldly adv.
- In a cold manner; without warmth, animation, or feeling; with indifference; calmly.
- husbandman n.
- The master of a family.
- glorious a.
- Exhibiting attributes, qualities, or acts that are worthy of or receive glory; noble; praiseworthy; excellent; splendid; illustrious; inspiring admiration; as, glorious deeds. [OF. glorios, glorious, F. glorieux, fr. L. gloriosus. See Glory, n.]
- wield v. t.
- To govern; to rule; to keep, or have in charge; also, to possess. [OE. welden to govern, to have power over, to possess, AS. geweldan, gewyldan, from wealdan; akin to OS. waldan, OFries. walda, G. walten, OHG. waltan, Icel. val]
- stayed a.
- Staid; fixed; settled; sober; -- now written staid. See Staid.
- noonday n.
- Midday; twelve o'clock in the day; noon.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Seed-Time and Harvest is in the public domain. This text is taken from Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete Volume III of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Project Gutenberg ebook #9580; 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 Greenleaf Whittier, Seed-Time and Harvest, in Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform (1865), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9580, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whittier-anti-slavery/seed-time-and-harvest.html, id L24937.
Form and metre
Seed-Time and Harvest is 32 lines in 8 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 7 of its 8 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 95%).
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 AABB lieA · skyA · snowB · sowB
- 2 AABB blastA · castA · rainB · grainB
- 3 --AA hard · reward · lessA · thankfulnessA
- 4 AABB wieldA · fieldA · evesB · sheavesB
- 5 AABB wroughtA · thoughtA · oneB · doneB
- 6 AABB whenceA · recompenseA · stayedB · shadeB
- 7 AABB spanA · manA · theseB · easeB
- 8 AABB grainA · againA · theyB · dayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| As o'er his furrowed fields which lie | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Beneath a coldly dropping sky, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Yet chill with winter's melted snow, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The husbandman goes forth to sow, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Thus, Freedom, on the bitter blast | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The ventures of thy seed we cast, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And trust to warmer sun and rain | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| To swell the germs and fill the grain. | 8 | ········ |
| Who calls thy glorious service hard? | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Who deems it not its own reward? | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Who, for its trials, counts it less. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A cause of praise and thankfulness? | 8 | ········ |
| It may not be our lot to wield | 8 | ····/··· |
| The sickle in the ripened field; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Nor ours to hear, on summer eves, | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| The reaper's song among the sheaves. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Yet where our duty's task is wrought | 8 | ··//˘··· |
| In unison with God's great thought, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| The near and future blend in one, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And whatsoe'er is willed, is done! | 8 | ·····˘·· |
| And ours the grateful service whence | 8 | ·/·/˘/˘· |
| Comes day by day the recompense; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The hope, the trust, the purpose stayed, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The fountain and the noonday shade. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And were this life the utmost span, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| The only end and aim of man, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Better the toil of fields like these | 8 | /˘······ |
| Than waking dream and slothful ease. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But life, though falling like our grain, | 8 | ···/˘·/· |
| Like that revives and springs again; | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| And, early called, how blest are they | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Who wait in heaven their harvest-day! | 8 | ···/·/˘· |
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.