Analysis of Harvest

Edmund Blunden 1896 (London) – 1974 (Long Melford)



So there's my year, the twelvemonth duly told
Since last I climbed this brow and gloated round
Upon the lands heaped with their wheaten gold,
And now again they spread with wealth imbrowned -
And thriftless I meanwhile,
What honeycombs have I to take, what sheaves to pile?

I see some shrivelled fruits upon my tree,
And gladly would self-kindness feign them sweet;
The bloom smelled heavenly, can these stragglers be
The fruit of that bright birth and this wry wheat,
Can this be from those spires
Which I, or fancy, saw leap to the spring sun's fires?

I peer, I count, but anxious is not rich,
My harvest is not come, the weeds run high;
Even poison-berries, ramping from the ditch
Have stormed the undefended ridges by;
What Michaelmas is mine!
The fields I sought to serve, for sturdier tilage pine.

But hush - Earth's valleys sweet in leisure lie;
And I among them wandering up and down
Will taste their berries, like the bird or fly,
And of their gleanings make both feast and crown.
The Sun's eye laughing looks.
And Earth accuses none that goes among her stooks.


Scheme AXAABB CDCDEX FGFGHH GIGIXE
Poetic Form
Metre 111101101 1111110101 0101111101 010111111 0111 1111111111 111110111 0101110111 01110011101 0111110111 111111 1111011101110 1111110111 1101110111 10101010101 1101101 1111 011111110011 1111010101 01011100101 1111010111 011111101 011101 010101110101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,055
Words 193
Sentences 8
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 35
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 211
Words per stanza (avg) 48
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

59 sec read
86

Edmund Blunden

Edmund Charles Blunden, MC was an English poet, author and critic. more…

All Edmund Blunden poems | Edmund Blunden Books

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