Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LABORER, by JOSE-MARIA DE HEREDIA (1842-1905)


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LABORER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Here is the yoke, with arrow and share near by
Last Line: In sunless fields of erebus forlorn.
Subject(s): Fields; Labor & Laborers; Pastures; Meadows; Leas; Work; Workers


HERE is the yoke, with arrow and share near by,
The goad, the scythe that in a day hath mown
Swathes that would make the wide barn-flooring groan,
And here the fork the brown haymakers ply.
Too heavy tools! He hath vowed them utterly
Unto immortal Rhea, who alone
Brings seed to blossom from hard tilth. His own
Labor is done and he not loth to die.

Fourscore long years, sun-blistered, poor, he drave
The coulter, without mirth, through stubborn soil,
Who now goes grimly onward to the grave.
Yet he bewails the labor too long borne,
And dreads to find more fallow for his toil
In sunless fields of Erebus forlorn.





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