Aftermath
Aftermath - meaning Summary
Harvest of Later Years
Longfellow’s brief poem depicts a late, autumnal harvest — the ‘‘aftermath’’ of fields cut earlier. Scenes of mowing, crows, dry leaves and snow frame gathering not of fresh green clover but of tangled, weedy rowen and poppy seeds. The language emphasizes decline and quiet persistence: what remains to be gathered is mixed, imperfect and subdued, suggesting themes of loss, residue, and the subdued labors that follow bounty.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen the summer fields are mown, When the birds are fledged and flown, And the dry leaves strew the path; With the falling of the snow, With the cawing of the crow, Once again the fields we mow And gather in the aftermath. Not the sweet, new grass with flowers Is this harvesting of ours; Not the upland clover bloom; But the rowen mixed with weeds, Tangled tufts from marsh and meads, Where the poppy drops its seeds In the silence and the gloom.
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