William Carlos Williams

The Corn Harvest

The Corn Harvest - context Summary

Ekphrastic Translation of Bruegel

William Carlos Williams' "The Corn Harvest" is an ekphrastic poem that renders a Bruegel painting into spare, conversational lines. It depicts a young reaper asleep at midday while women bring his lunch and gossip beneath a tree. The poem focuses on a small domestic scene, emphasizing ordinary labor and leisure through pared-down description. Its plain language invites readers to observe social roles and the quiet rhythms of rural life.

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Summer! the painting is organized about a young reaper enjoying his noonday rest completely relaxed from his morning labors sprawled in fact sleeping unbuttoned on his back the women have brought him his lunch perhaps a spot of wine they gather gossiping under a tree whose shade carelessly he does not share the resting center of their workaday world.

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