The Last Harvest (1940)

Summary

*The Last Harvest* (1940) by Frans Eemil Sillanpää is not represented in the provided passages. The passages instead contain the complete text of *A Spring Harvest* (1918) by Geoffrey Bache Smith, a collection of poems written before and during World War I, edited and published posthumously by J. R. R. Tolkien. The central argument of Smith's work is that war forces a poet to abandon "old quiet things" and "gradual ways" for "the strife of kings" and "barren lands," where the voice of guns becomes familiar. The poems contrast the beauty of nature—"sun and shadow and winds of spring"—with the reality of death, as the speaker lies "amid the silence of the trees" after battle. A reader takes away Smith's insistence that even in destruction, the poet must "mount and ride / Upon a steed untried," and that after the conflict, "God grant that we may do the things undone." The collection includes poems written in England, Wales, and France from 1915–1916, with "The Burial of Sophocles" begun before the war and completed in the trenches.

Key concepts

• "uneventful rime" — A poem that lacks dramatic action, now armed "with panoply of flowers" as a contrast to wartime violence.
• "fierce and warlike Muse" — A poetic inspiration that rejects "soft companionship" and demands the poet ride "a steed untried" into battle.
• "trodden course" — The path of soldiers who have "battled with bloody hands / Through evil times in barren lands," which they force upon their masters' ears.
• "the things undone" — Unfinished creative or personal works that the poet hopes to complete "when the New Age is verily begun" after the war ends.
• "proud processional" — The great storms that "come and go" among the hills, described as a "changing benison / Of the old gods who wrought the world."
• "perfect heart" vs. "perfect life" — A contrast between nature's flawless parts ("in sunny rest, or windy strife") and humanity's inability to achieve perfection, as "never yet the perfect heart."

From the book

Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.

Q. G. A Spring Harvest by Geoffrey Bache Smith "Sun and Shadow and Winds of Spring" "Let us tell Quiet Stories of Kind Eyes" → 4224849 A Spring Harvest — "Sun and Shadow and Winds of Spring" Geoffrey Bache Smith ​ "SUN AND SHADOW AND WINDS OF SPRING" Sun and shadow and winds of spring, Love and laughter and hope and fame, Cloud and storm-light over the hills, Tears and passion and sordid shame: All, all are but as quenchèd fire And vanish'd smoke to him that lies Amid the silence of the trees Under the silence of the skies.← Songs on the Downs A Spring Harvest by Geoffrey Bache Smith "We who have bowed ourselves to Time" Anglia Valida in Senectute → 4224747 A Spring Harvest — "We who have bowed ourselves to Time" Geoffrey Bache Smith ​ III. LAST POEMS AND "THE BURIAL OF SOPHOCLES" "WE WHO…

Popular questions readers ask

• The editor's note emphasizes the varied origins of the poems, including those written "during a year in France" and a final version sent "from the trenches." How do these biographical and contextual details, particularly the date of publication (1918), inform and deepen a reader's understanding of the contrasting themes of nature's perfection versus human sin and disillusionment found in the poem excerpts?
• Both poem excerpts utilize strong antitheses, such as "dark boughs against a golden sky" and the contrast between "perfect nature's every part" and "never yet the perfect heart." What specific rhetorical effect do these recurring juxtapositions achieve in conveying the poet's message, and how might they reflect the emotional or psychological landscape of the era?
• J. R. R. T.'s editorial note states that "no prelude and no envoi is needed other than those here printed as their author left them." What does this specific editorial choice suggest about the intended raw impact or authenticity of Smith's work, and how might it implicitly guide a reader's approach to interpreting the collection, particularly given the fragmented and non-chronological arrangement of the poems?
• The collection is titled "A Spring Harvest." How does this title, with its connotations of renewal, growth, and bounty, paradoxically relate to the often somber, melancholic, and world-weary tones expressed in the two provided poem excerpts? What complex understanding of human experience does this tension between title and content generate?
• In "Dark is the World our Fathers left us," the poem concludes with the command, "Tear ye the veil of time asunder / Tear the veil, 'tis the gods'." Given the poem's themes of inherited gloom and a lost "golden" past, what might this "veil" symbolize, and what specific form of agency, hope, or societal transformation is the poet advocating or aspiring to in this concluding imperative?