Analysis of Reapers

Mathilde Blind 1841 (Mannheim) – 1896 (London)



Sun-Tanned men and women, toiling there together;
Seven I count in all, in yon field of wheat,
Where the rich ripe ears in the harvest weather
Glow an orange gold through the sweltering heat.

Busy life is still, sunk in brooding leisure:
Birds have hushed their singing in the hushed tree tops;
Not a single cloud mars the flawless azure;
Not a shadow moves o'er the moveless crops;

In the grassy shallows, that no breath is creasing,
Chestnut-coloured cows in the rushes dank
Stand like cows of bronze, save when they flick the teasing
Flies with switch of tail from each quivering flank.

Nature takes a rest-even her bees are sleeping,
And the silent wood seems a church that's shut;
But these human creatures cease not from their reaping
While the corn stands high, waiting to be cut.


Scheme ABAB ACAC DDDD DEDE
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 111010101010 10110101111 10111001010 11101101001 10111101010 11111000111 10101101010 101110011 0010111111 110100101 111111111010 11111111001 101011001110 0010110111 111010111110 1011110111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 795
Words 140
Sentences 4
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 39
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 157
Words per stanza (avg) 35
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 01, 2023

42 sec read
193

Mathilde Blind

Mathilde Blind, was a German-born British poet. Her work was praised by Matthew Arnold and French politician and historian Louis Blanc. more…

All Mathilde Blind poems | Mathilde Blind Books

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