Analysis of Seed-Time And Harvest
John Greenleaf Whittier 1807 (Haverhill) – 1892 (Hampton Falls)
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!
Scheme | AABCDDEEFGHCIIJJKKLLMMNNOOPPEQRR |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110110111 01010101 11110101 011111 11010101 01011111 01110101 11010101 111100101 11111101 11110111 011101 111110111 01000101 110111101 0110101 11101111 01001111 01010101 011111 010010101 1111010 01010101 0100011 0011011 01010111 10011111 1101011 111101101 11010101 01011111 110101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,116 |
Words | 211 |
Sentences | 10 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 32 |
Lines Amount | 32 |
Letters per line (avg) | 28 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 890 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 209 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 08, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 89 Views
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"Seed-Time And Harvest" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/23030/seed-time-and-harvest>.
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