They Who Prepare My Evening Meal Below

Henry David Thoreau 1817 (Concord) – 1862 (Concord)



They who prepare my evening meal below
Carelessly hit the kettle as they go
With tongs or shovel,
And ringing round and round,
Out of this hovel
It makes an eastern temple by the sound.

At first I thought a cow bell right at hand
Mid birches sounded o'er the open land,
Where I plucked flowers
Many years ago,
Spending midsummer hours
With such secure delight they hardly seemed to flow.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

22 sec read
291

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABCBC DDEAEA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 395
Words 73
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 6, 6

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. more…

All Henry David Thoreau poems | Henry David Thoreau Books

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    Who wrote the poem ״Invictus״?
    A William Ernest Henley
    B Thomas Hardy
    C Sylvia Plath
    D Oscar Wilde