Aftermath
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