WHEN first the Pleiads, children of Atlas, arise, begin your harvest: plough, when they quit the skies. For two score days they are hidden, and nights two score, and soon as the sickle is sharpened appear once more. Here's a rule of the plains, a rule that the farmer obeys who dwells by the coast, or in winding valley ways far from the heaving sea, where the soil is deep: 'Strip you to sow and to plough, and strip to reap.' So do, if a timely harvest be your care of fruits by Demeter given. For each prepare a timely increase against your hour of need, -- or beg at another's door, and none shall heed. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOWN THE BROOK by ROBERT FROST AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS WAR by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON DOWN BY THE CARIB SEA: 2. LOS CIGARILLOS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON IF HE SHOULD COME by EDWIN MARKHAM A REPUBLIC! by EDGAR LEE MASTERS DOMESDAY BOOK: GEORGE JOSLIN ON LA MENKEN by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |