Aftermath

Aftermath

When 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.

REVIEW

Aftermath was quite a beautifully written poem which after a few readings according to me talks about all the seasons through the entire piece. Each line speaks of a season and although a short piece speaks of an entire year .For example, he describes the mowing of fields and birds traveling at the end of spring and summer . Then, he mentions the falling, golden leaves and snow for the following seasons .After giving brief details of each season, Longfellow claims that it’s time for an aftermath. Now that spring is back again, the year deserves a review and a plan for moving forward. He says, “Once again the fields we mow and gather in the aftermath”. As done by romantic writers nature and its beauty form an integral part of their poetry .The outdoors proved to be a huge inspiration for writers at this time, so they discussed it very often in their work. “Aftermath” also follows the journey of the changing seasons.A story of travel and change is also popular in the Romanticism period. Longfellow makes use of alliteration and personification as seen in the line “Tangled tufts from marsh and meads” (Longfellow). Personification was given to the poppy, a flower, when it “drops its seeds”. Flowers don’t have hands, so they can’t literally drop something. Instead, Longfellow is giving the flower human like traits. A typical poem of a typical era written extremely well using only a few words to describe a plethora of emotions.