Analysis of The Field of the World

James Montgomery 1771 (Irvine) – 1854



Sow in the morn thy seed,
At eve hold not thy hand;
To doubt and fear give thou no heed,
Broadcast it o’er the land.

Beside all waters sow;
The highway furrows stock;
Drop it where thorns and thistles grow;
Scatter it on the rock.

The good and fruitful ground,
Expect not here nor there;
O'er hill and dale, by plots, 'tis found;
Go forth, then, everywhere.

Thou know’st not which may thrive,
The late or early sown;
God keeps His precious seed alive,
When and wherever strown.

And duly shall appear,
In verdure, beauty, strength,
The tender blade, the stalk, the ear,
And the full corn at length.

Thou canst not toil in vain:
Cold, heat, and moist, and dry,
Shall foster and mature the grain
For garners in the sky.

Thence, when the glorious end,
The day of God is come,
The angels reapers shall descend,
And heav’n cry - 'Harvest Home.'


Scheme ABAB XCXC DEDE FGFG XHXH IJIJ KXKX
Poetic Form Quatrain  (86%)
Metre 100111 111111 11011111 11101 011101 0111 11110101 101101 010101 011111 101011111 11110 111111 011101 11110101 100101 010101 01101 01010101 001111 111101 110101 11000101 110001 1101001 011111 0101101 011101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 827
Words 157
Sentences 8
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 91
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

47 sec read
92

James Montgomery

The Very Reverend James Francis Montgomery was an Anglican priest in the second half of the 19th century He studied for the bar before being ordained after a period of study at Durham University, and was a Curate at Puddletown before Edinburgh incumbencies. more…

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