Aftermath
Original Text:
The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with Bibliographical and Critical Notes, Riverside Edition (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1890), III, 81. PS 2250 E90 Robarts Library.
2When the birds are fledged and flown,
3 And the dry leaves strew the path;
4With the falling of the snow,
5With the cawing of the crow,
6Once again the fields we mow
7 And gather in the aftermath.
8Not the sweet, new grass with flowers
9Is this harvesting of ours;
10 Not the upland clover bloom;
11But the rowen mixed with weeds,
12Tangled tufts from marsh and meads,
13Where the poppy drops its seeds
14 In the silence and the gloom.
Notes
1] "This poem, placed last in the book, gave title to the volume published in 1873, which contained the third part of Tales of a Wayside Inn and the third flight of Birds of Passage. The completion of the Tales on his sixty-sixth birthday may have given rise to this poem." (Editor, p. 81.) Back to Line
Publication Start Year:
1873
Publication Notes:
Aftermath (1873)
RPO poem Editors:
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition:
RPO 1998.
Rhyme: