John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.
Songs of Labor and ReformSeed-Time and Harvest
A
Beneath a coldly dropping sky,
Yet chill with winter’s melted snow,
The husbandman goes forth to sow,
The ventures of thy seed we cast,
And trust to warmer sun and rain
To swell the germs and fill the grain.
Who deems it not its own reward?
Who, for its trials, counts it less
A cause of praise and thankfulness?
The sickle in the ripened field;
Nor ours to hear, on summer eves,
The reaper’s song among the sheaves.
In unison with God’s great thought,
The near and future blend in one,
And whatsoe’er is willed, is done!
Comes day by day the recompense;
The hope, the trust, the purpose stayed,
The fountain and the noonday shade.
The only end and aim of man,
Better the toil of fields like these
Than waking dream and slothful ease.
Like that revives and springs again;
And, early called, how blest are they
Who wait in heaven their harvest-day!