Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SEED-TIME AND HARVEST, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: As o'er his furrowed fields which lie Last Line: Who wait in heaven their harvest-day! Subject(s): Harvest | ||||||||
As o'er his furrowed fields which lie Beneath a coldly dropping sky, Yet chill with winter's melted snow, The husbandman goes forth to sow, Thus, Freedom, on the bitter blast The ventures of thy seed we cast, And trust to warmer sun and rain To 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 wield The 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 wrought In 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 whence Comes 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 these Than waking dream and slothful ease. But life, though falling like our grain, Like that revives and springs again; And, early called, how blest are they Who wait in heaven their harvest-day! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STORM AT HOPTIME by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE LAST MAN by ELEANOR WILNER THE HOCK-CART, OR HARVEST HOME by ROBERT HERRICK HARVEST SONG by LUDWIG HENRICH CHRISTOPH HOLTY HARVEST MOON: 1914 by JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY ANTIQUE HARVESTERS by JOHN CROWE RANSOM THE POTATO HARVEST by CHARLES GEORGE DOUGLAS ROBERTS AMY WENTWORTH; FOR WILLIAM BRADFORD by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |
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