Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE UNREAPED FIELD, by NIKOLAY ALEXEYEVICH NEKRASOV Poet's Biography First Line: It grows late autumn, and the rooks are flown Last Line: "ploughing and meditating as he ploughed." Alternate Author Name(s): Nekrasov, N. A. Subject(s): Autumn; Seasons; Fall | ||||||||
IT grows late Autumn, and the rooks are flown; The woods are bare; all empty stands the plain; One field is yet unreaped, one field alone. It sets me musing in a mournful train. Surely these cornstalks whisper one to the other: "This Autumn wind, it has a weary sound; And weary work it is to sink and smother good grain in dust by bending tops to ground. "The mighty havoc of these wild horse-droves! The hares that trample us down, the squalls that batter! The toll to every robber-beak that roves! ... Where is the goodman tarrying? What's the matter? "Are we so worse a plant than all the rest? Blade, bloom and grain -- what found he to mislike? Nay, 'tis not that; we're buxom at the best: Long since the full ear plumped the nodding spike. "Was it for this he ploughed and sowed the piece, That autumn winds should scatter our increase?" A doleful answer on the winds comes blowing: "He's no more man to do the work you ask. He meant not this at ploughing time or sowing, Nor reckoned strength should fail him for his task. "He cannot eat or drink -- the worm so burrows And sucks his heart that now poor Gaffer's lips Refuse him food; the hands which traced your furrows Are limp as any thong and shrunk to chips; "His eyes too bleared to see; the voice quite spent Which sang his melancholy thought aloud While gripping the ash-tail hard, the old yeoman went Ploughing and meditating as he ploughed." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OUR AUTUMN by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN AN AUTUMN JOY by GEORGE ARNOLD A LEAF FALLS by MARION LOUISE BLISS THE FARMER'S BOY: AUTUMN by ROBERT BLOOMFIELD A LETTER IN OCTOBER by TED KOOSER AUTUMN EVENING by DAVID LEHMAN EVERYTHING THAT ACTS IS ACTUAL by DENISE LEVERTOV HOME by NIKOLAY ALEXEYEVICH NEKRASOV |
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