Poems (Jackson)/Two Harvests
LOSSOM and fruit no man could count or hoard;Seasons their laws forgot, in riot hasteLavishing yield on yield in madman's waste;No tropic with its centuries' heat outpouredIn centuries of summers, ever storedSuch harvest.Had the earth her sole pearl placedIn wine of sun to melt,—one blissful tasteTo drain and die,—it had not fully doweredThis harvest!She who smiling goes, a queen,Reaping with alabaster arms and handsThe fruits and flowers of these magic lands,With idle, satiate intervals between,—Oh, what to her do laws of harvest mean?Joy passes by her, where she laden stands!
TWO HARVESTS.
I.
LOSSOM and fruit no man could count or hoard;Seasons their laws forgot, in riot hasteLavishing yield on yield in madman's waste;No tropic with its centuries' heat outpouredIn centuries of summers, ever storedSuch harvest.Had the earth her sole pearl placedIn wine of sun to melt,—one blissful tasteTo drain and die,—it had not fully doweredThis harvest!She who smiling goes, a queen,Reaping with alabaster arms and handsThe fruits and flowers of these magic lands,With idle, satiate intervals between,—Oh, what to her do laws of harvest mean?Joy passes by her, where she laden stands!II.
A parched and arid land, all colorless,Than desert drearier, than rock more stern;Spring could not find, nor any summer learnThe secret to redeem this wilderness.Harsh winds sweep through with icy storm and stress:Fierce lurid suns shine but to blight and burn; And streams rise, pallid, but to flee and turn:Who soweth here waits miracle to blessThe harvest!She who smiling goes, a queen,Seeking with hidden tears and tireless handsTo win a fruitage from these barren lands,—She knoweth what the laws of harvest mean!Blades spring, flowers bloom, by all but her unseen;Joy's halo crowns her, where she patient stands!