'Leaves Of Grass. A Carol Of Harvest For 1867' by Walt Whitman
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A SONG of the good green grass!
A song no more of the city streets;
A song of farms--a song of the soil of fields.
A song with the smell of sun-dried hay, where the nimble pitchers
handle the pitch-fork;
A song tasting of new wheat, and of fresh-husk'd maize.
For the lands, and for these passionate days, and for myself,
Now I awhile return to thee, O soil of Autumn fields,
Reclining on thy breast, giving myself to thee,
Answering the pulses of thy sane and equable heart,
Tuning a verse for thee.10
O Earth, that hast no voice, confide to me a voice!
O harvest of my lands! O boundless summer growths!
O lavish, brown, parturient earth! O infinite, teeming womb!
A verse to seek, to see, to narrate thee.
Ever upon this stage,
Is acted God's calm, annual drama,
Gorgeous processions, songs of birds,
Sunrise, that fullest feeds and freshens most the soul,
The heaving sea, the waves upon the shore, the musical, strong waves,
The woods, the stalwart trees, the slender, tapering trees,20
The flowers, the grass, the lilliput, countless armies of the grass,
The heat, the showers, the measureless pasturages,
The scenery of the snows, the winds' free orchestra,
The stretching, light-hung roof of clouds--the clear cerulean, and
the bulging, silvery fringes,
The high dilating stars, the placid, beckoning stars,
The moving flocks and herds, the plains and emerald meadows,
The shows of all the varied lands, and all the growths and products.
Fecund America! To-day,
Thou art all over set in births and joys!
Thou groan'st with riches! thy wealth clothes thee as with a swathing
garment!30
Thou laughest loud with ache of great possessions!
A myriad-twining life, like interlacing vines, binds all thy vast
demesne!
As some huge ship, freighted to water's edge, thou ridest into port!
As rain falls from the heaven, and vapors rise from earth, so have
the precious values fallen upon thee, and risen out of thee!
Thou envy of the globe! thou miracle!
Thou, bathed, choked, swimming in plenty!
Thou lucky Mistress of the tranquil barns!
Thou Prairie Dame that sittest in the middle, and lookest out upon
thy world, and lookest East, and lookest West!
Dispensatress, that by a word givest a thousand miles--that giv'st a
million farms, and missest nothing!
Thou All-Acceptress--thou Hospitable--(thou only art hospitable, as
God is hospitable.)40
When late I sang, sad was my voice;
Sad were the shows around me, with deafening noises of hatred, and
smoke of conflict;
In the midst of the armies, the Heroes, I stood,
Or pass'd with slow step through the wounded and dying.
But now I sing not War,
Nor the measur'd march of soldiers, nor the tents of camps,
Nor the regiments hastily coming up, deploying in line of battle.
No more the dead and wounded;
No more the sad, unnatural shows of War.
Ask'd room those flush'd immortal ranks? the first forth-stepping
armies?50
Ask room, alas, the ghastly ranks--the armies dread that follow'd.
(Pass--pass, ye proud brigades!
So handsome, dress'd in blue--with your tramping, sinewy legs;
With your shoulders young and strong--with your knapsacks and your
muskets;
--How elate I stood and watch'd you, where, starting off, you
march'd!
Pass;--then rattle, drums, again!
Scream, you steamers on the river, out of whistles loud and shrill,
your salutes!
For an army heaves in sight--O another gathering army!
Swarming, trailing on the rear--O you dread, accruing army!
O you regiments so piteous, with your mortal diarrhoea! with your
fever!60
O my land's maimed darlings! with the plenteous bloody bandage and
the crutch!
Lo! your pallid army follow'd!)
But on these days of brightness,
On the far-stretching beauteous landscape, the roads and lanes, the
high-piled farm-wagons, and the fruits and barns,
Shall the dead intrude?
Ah, the dead to me mar not--they fit well in Nature;
They fit very well in the landscape, under the trees and grass,
And along the edge of the sky, in the horizon's far margin.
Nor do I forget you, departed;
Nor in winter or summer, my lost ones;70
But most, in the open air, as now, when my soul is rapt and at
peace--like pleasing phantoms,
Your dear memories, rising, glide silently by me.
I saw the day, the return of the Heroes;
(Yet the Heroes never surpass'd, shall never return;
Them, that day, I saw not.)
I saw the interminable Corps--I saw the processions of armies,
I saw them approaching, defiling by, with divisions,
Streaming northward, their work done, camping awhile in clusters of
mighty camps.
No holiday soldiers!--youthful, yet veterans;
Worn, swart, handsome, strong, of the stock of homestead and
workshop,
Harden'd of many a long campaign and sweaty march,80
Inured on many a hard-fought, bloody field.
A pause--the armies wait;
A million flush'd, embattled conquerors wait;
The world, too, waits--then, soft as breaking night, and sure as
dawn,
They melt--they disappear.
Exult, indeed, O lands! victorious lands!
Not there your victory, on those red, shuddering fields;
But here and hence your victory.
Melt, melt away, ye armies! disperse, ye blue-clad soldiers!
Resolve ye back again--give up, for good, your deadly arms;90
Other the arms, the fields henceforth for you, or South or North, or
East or West,
With saner wars--sweet wars--life-giving wars.
Loud, O my throat, and clear, O soul!
The season of thanks, and the voice of full-yielding;
The chant of joy and power for boundless fertility.
All till'd and untill'd fields expand before me;
I see the true arenas of my race--or first, or last,
Man's innocent and strong arenas.
I see the Heroes at other toils;
I see, well-wielded in their hands, the better weapons.100
I see where America, Mother of All,
Well-pleased, with full-spanning eye, gazes forth, dwells long,
And counts the varied gathering of the products.
Busy the far, the sunlit panorama;
Prairie, orchard, and yellow grain of the North,
Cotton and rice of the South, and Louisianian cane;
Open, unseeded fallows, rich fields of clover and timothy,
Kine and horses feeding, and droves of sheep and swine,
And many a stately river flowing, and many a jocund brook,
And healthy uplands with their herby-perfumed breezes,110
And the good green grass--that delicate miracle, the ever-recurring
grass.
Toil on, Heroes! harvest the products!
Not alone on those warlike fields, the Mother of All,
With dilated form and lambent eyes, watch'd you.
Toil on, Heroes! toil well! Handle the weapons well!
The Mother of All--yet here, as ever, she watches you.
Well-pleased, America, thou beholdest,
Over the fields of the West, those crawling monsters,
The human-divine inventions, the labor-saving implements:
Beholdest, moving in every direction, imbued as with life, the
revolving hay-rakes,120
The steam-power reaping-machines, and the horse-power machines,
The engines, thrashers of grain, and cleaners of grain, well
separating the straw--the nimble work of the patent pitch-fork;
Beholdest the newer saw-mill, the southern cotton-gin, and the rice-
cleanser.
Beneath thy look, O Maternal,
With these, and else, and with their own strong hands, the Heroes
harvest.
All gather, and all harvest;
(Yet but for thee, O Powerful! not a scythe might swing, as now, in
security;
Not a maize-stalk dangle, as now, its silken tassels in peace.)
Under Thee only they harvest--even but a wisp of hay, under thy great
face, only;
Harvest the wheat of Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin--every barbed spear,
under thee;130
Harvest the maize of Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee--each ear in its
light-green sheath,
Gather the hay to its myriad mows, in the odorous, tranquil barns,
Oats to their bins--the white potato, the buckwheat of Michigan, to
theirs;
Gather the cotton in Mississippi or Alabama--dig and hoard the
golden, the sweet potato of Georgia and the Carolinas,
Clip the wool of California or Pennsylvania,
Cut the flax in the Middle States, or hemp, or tobacco in the
Borders,
Pick the pea and the bean, or pull apples from the trees, or bunches
of grapes from the vines,
Or aught that ripens in all These States, or North or South,
Under the beaming sun, and under Thee.
Editor 1 Interpretation
Leaves Of Grass: A Carol of Harvest for 1867 by Walt Whitman
Have you ever read Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass? If not, let me tell you, you are missing out! This masterpiece of American literature is a collection of poetry that celebrates humanity, nature, and the interconnectedness of all things. And within its pages, you'll find a gem like "A Carol of Harvest for 1867."
First published in 1868, "A Carol of Harvest for 1867" is a beautiful and lyrical poem that captures the essence of the harvest season. In it, Whitman describes the bountiful harvest and the joy it brings to the people who work the land.
Interpretation
But there's more to this poem than just a celebration of the harvest. "A Carol of Harvest for 1867" is also a meditation on the cyclical nature of life and death. Whitman reminds us that just as the harvest is a time of abundance, it is also a time of loss. The fields may be full of ripened grain, but they are also littered with the remnants of what has been cut down.
As you read the poem, you can feel the tension between these two opposing forces. On the one hand, there is the exuberant celebration of the harvest, with its "glowing suns" and "wealth of globes." On the other hand, there is the acknowledgment of death and decay, with its "scythes and baskets" and "the dead in their shrouds."
But Whitman doesn't simply leave us with this sense of tension. Instead, he offers us a way to reconcile these opposing forces. He reminds us that just as the harvest represents both life and death, so too do our lives consist of both joy and sorrow. We may experience loss and pain, but we can also find beauty and meaning in our existence.
Literary Criticism
One of the things that makes "A Carol of Harvest for 1867" so effective is the way that Whitman uses language. His poetry is full of vivid and sensory details that bring the harvest to life. We can feel the heat of the sun and the weight of the grain in our hands. We can smell the earth and taste the sweetness of the fruit.
But Whitman doesn't rely solely on sensory details to convey his message. He also uses repetition and parallelism to create a sense of rhythm and structure in the poem. For example, the repeated use of the phrase "the dead in their shrouds" emphasizes the inevitability of death and the cyclical nature of life.
In addition to these formal elements, "A Carol of Harvest for 1867" is also notable for its themes. Whitman was a poet who celebrated the common man and the beauty of the natural world. In this poem, he brings these two themes together to create a portrait of a community bound together by their connection to the land.
Conclusion
In conclusion, "A Carol of Harvest for 1867" is a beautiful and powerful poem that captures the essence of the harvest season. Through his use of language and imagery, Walt Whitman reminds us of the cyclical nature of life and the inevitable presence of both joy and sorrow. But he also offers us a way to reconcile these opposing forces, to find beauty and meaning in our existence.
If you haven't read Leaves of Grass yet, I highly recommend it. And if you have, then I encourage you to revisit "A Carol of Harvest for 1867" with fresh eyes. This poem is a testament to the power of language and the beauty of the human experience.
Editor 2 Analysis and Explanation
Leaves of Grass is a collection of poems written by Walt Whitman, one of the most celebrated poets in American literature. The collection is known for its free verse style and its celebration of democracy, nature, and the human body. One of the most famous poems in the collection is "A Carol of Harvest for 1867," which captures the joy and abundance of the harvest season.
The poem begins with the speaker addressing the "great round world" and celebrating the bountiful harvest that has come. The speaker describes the fields as "laden with yellow corn" and the orchards as "heavy with sweet fruit." The imagery is vivid and evocative, painting a picture of abundance and plenty.
As the poem progresses, the speaker becomes more and more exuberant, celebrating the "glad, happy morning" and the "fullness and richness of the earth." The language is joyful and celebratory, capturing the sense of gratitude and wonder that comes with the harvest season.
One of the most striking aspects of the poem is its use of repetition. The phrase "harvest of my own life" appears several times throughout the poem, emphasizing the personal significance of the harvest season for the speaker. The repetition also creates a sense of rhythm and momentum, propelling the poem forward and building to a climax.
The climax of the poem comes in the final stanza, where the speaker declares that "the earth never tires" and that "the harvest-time will never fail." This statement is both a celebration of the present moment and a declaration of faith in the future. The speaker is confident that the abundance of the harvest will continue, year after year, and that the earth will always provide for us.
Overall, "A Carol of Harvest for 1867" is a beautiful and inspiring poem that captures the joy and abundance of the harvest season. Whitman's use of vivid imagery, repetition, and joyful language creates a sense of celebration and gratitude that is infectious. It is a reminder that even in difficult times, there is always something to be thankful for, and that the earth will always provide for us if we treat it with respect and care.
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