The Corn-Song
Heap high the farmer's wintry hoardHeap high the golden cornNo richer gift has Autumn pouredFrom out her lavish horn!
Let other lands, exulting, gleanThe apple from the pine,The orange from its glossy green,The cluster from the vine;
We better love the hardy giftOur rugged vales bestow,To cheer us when the storm shall driftOur harvest-fields with snow.
Through vales of grass and mends of flowersOur ploughs their furrows made,While on the hills the sun and showersOf changeful April played.
We dropped the seed o'er hill and plainBeneath the sun of May,And frightened from our sprouting grainThe robber crows away.
All through the long, bright days of JuneIts leaves grew green and fair,And waved in hot midsummer's noonIts soft and yellow hair.
And now, with autumn's moonlit eves,Its harvest-time has come,We pluck away the frosted leaves,And bear the treasure home.
There, when the snows about us drift,And winter winds are cold,Fair hands the broken grain shall sift,And knead its meal of gold.
Let vapid idlers loll in silkAround their costly board;Give us the bowl of samp and milk,By homespun beauty poured!
Where'er the wide old kitchen hearthSends up its smoky curls,Who will not thank the kindly earth,And bless our farmer girls!
Then shame on all the proud and vain,Whose folly laughs to scornThe blessing of our hardy grain,Our wealth of golden corn.
Let earth withhold her goodly root,Let mildew blight the rye,Give to the worm the orchard's fruit,The wheat-field to the fly.
But let the good old crop adornThe hills our fathers trod;Still let us, for his golden corn,Send up our thanks to God!
Words in this poem 15
- wintry a.
- Suitable to winter; resembling winter, or what belongs to winter; brumal; hyemal; cold; stormy; wintery. [AS. wintrig.]
- exulting a.
- Rejoicing triumphantly or exceedingly; exultant.
- glean n.
- Cleaning; afterbirth. Holland.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- changeful a.
- Full of change; mutable; inconstant; fickle; uncertain.
- moonlit a.
- Illumined by the moon.
- frosted a.
- Covered with hoarfrost or anything resembling hoarfrost; ornamented with frosting; also, frost-bitten; as, a frosted cake; frosted glass.
- knead v. t.
- To work and press into a mass, usually with the hands; esp., to work, as by repeated pressure with the knuckles, into a well mixed mass, as the materials of bread, cake, etc.; as, to knead dough. [OE. kneden, As. cnedan; akin to D. kneden, G. kneten, Sw. kn, Icel. kno; cf. OSlav.gnesti.]
- loll v. i.
- To act lazily or indolently; to recline; to lean; to throw one's self down; to lie at ease. [Cf. Icel. lolla to act lazily, loll, lolla, laziness, OD. lollen to sit over the fire, and E. lull. Cf. Lill, Lull.]
- samp n.
- An article of food consisting of maize broken or bruised, which is cooked by by boiling, and usually eaten with milk; coarse hominy. [From American Indian sapac, saupac, made soft, or thinned.]
- homespun a.
- Spun or wrought at home; of domestic manufacture; coarse; plain.
- thank n.
- A expression of gratitude; an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. [AS. Þanc, Þonc, thanks, favor, thought; akin to OS. thank favor, pleasure, thanks, D. & G. dank thanks, Icel. Þ\'94kk, Dan. tak, Sw. tack, Goth. Þagks thanks; -]
- wealth n.
- Weal; welfare; prosperity; good. [OE. welthe, from wele; cf. D. weelde luxury. See Weal prosperity.]
- goodly a.
- Pleasant; agreeable; desirable. [OE. godlich, AS. g. See Good, and Like.]
- mildew n.
- A growth of minute powdery or webby fungi, whitish or of different colors, found on various diseased or decaying substances. [AS. meledeáw; akin to OHG. militou, G. mehlthau, mehltau; prob. orig. meaning, honeydew; cf. Goth. milip honey. See Mellifluous, and Dew.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Corn-Song 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, The Corn-Song, 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/the-corn-song.html, id L24946.
Form and metre
The Corn-Song is 52 lines in 13 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 12 of its 13 stanzas. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 ABAB hoardA · cornB · pouredA · hornB
- 2 ABAB gleanA · pineB · greenA · vineB
- 3 ABAB giftA · bestowB · driftA · snowB
- 4 ABAB flowersA · madeB · showersA · playedB
- 5 ABAB plainA · mayB · grainA · awayB
- 6 ABAB juneA · fairB · noonA · hairB
- 7 ABAB evesA · comeB · leavesA · homeB
- 8 ABAB driftA · coldB · siftA · goldB
- 9 ABAB silkA · boardB · milkA · pouredB
- 10 -A-A hearth · curlsA · earth · girlsA
- 11 ABAB vainA · scornB · grainA · cornB
- 12 ABAB rootA · ryeB · fruitA · flyB
- 13 ABAB adornA · trodB · cornA · godB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Heap high the farmer's wintry hoard | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Heap high the golden corn | 6 | ···/˘· |
| No richer gift has Autumn poured | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| From out her lavish horn! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Let other lands, exulting, glean | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| The apple from the pine, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The orange from its glossy green, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The cluster from the vine; | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| We better love the hardy gift | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Our rugged vales bestow, | 7 | /˘/˘·˘/ |
| To cheer us when the storm shall drift | 8 | ········ |
| Our harvest-fields with snow. | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Through vales of grass and mends of flowers | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Our ploughs their furrows made, | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| While on the hills the sun and showers | 9 | ·······/˘ |
| Of changeful April played. | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| We dropped the seed o'er hill and plain | 8 | ········ |
| Beneath the sun of May, | 6 | ······ |
| And frightened from our sprouting grain | 8 | ·/˘·//˘· |
| The robber crows away. | 6 | ·/˘·˘/ |
| All through the long, bright days of June | 8 | ········ |
| Its leaves grew green and fair, | 6 | ······ |
| And waved in hot midsummer's noon | 8 | ····//˘· |
| Its soft and yellow hair. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| And now, with autumn's moonlit eves, | 8 | ···/˘/·· |
| Its harvest-time has come, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| We pluck away the frosted leaves, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| And bear the treasure home. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| There, when the snows about us drift, | 8 | ········ |
| And winter winds are cold, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Fair hands the broken grain shall sift, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And knead its meal of gold. | 6 | ······ |
| Let vapid idlers loll in silk | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Around their costly board; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Give us the bowl of samp and milk, | 8 | ········ |
| By homespun beauty poured! | 6 | ·/·/˘· |
| Where'er the wide old kitchen hearth | 9 | ˘˘/···/˘· |
| Sends up its smoky curls, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Who will not thank the kindly earth, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And bless our farmer girls! | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Then shame on all the proud and vain, | 8 | ········ |
| Whose folly laughs to scorn | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The blessing of our hardy grain, | 8 | ·/˘·//˘· |
| Our wealth of golden corn. | 7 | /˘··/˘· |
| Let earth withhold her goodly root, | 8 | ··˘/·/˘· |
| Let mildew blight the rye, | 6 | ·/···· |
| Give to the worm the orchard's fruit, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The wheat-field to the fly. | 6 | ······ |
| But let the good old crop adorn | 8 | ······˘/ |
| The hills our fathers trod; | 7 | ··/˘/˘· |
| Still let us, for his golden corn, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Send up our thanks to God! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
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