Abstract
The bird-boy's pealing horn is loudly blow'd; The waggons jostle on with rattling sound; And hogs and geese now throng the dusty road, Grunting and gabbling, in contention, round The barley ears that litter on the ground. The workers in 'The Harvest Morning' sweat and sweat more than in any other poem that appeared in the four volumes published in Clare's lifetime: the word itself occurs four times in total, two of them in this poem. [...]while there are many original stylistic features in 'The Harvest Morning', including the sophisticated use of Spenserian stanzas or the evocative sound imagery, Clare's attention to the physicality of work, to the felt experience of work, and to the precise movements of the worker's body renders the poem a significant experiment in depicting the lived embodiment of rural cycles and routines. After a description comparing the workers' efforts to those of classical heroes, Duck's speaker asserts: 'In briny Streams our Sweat descends apace, / Drops from our Locks, or trickles down our Face'.