"WHERE LONG the SHADOWS..."

THE SHEAVES ( 1925) written by Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)

Where long the shadows of the wind had rolled in

Green wheat was yielding to the change assigned,

And as by some vast magic undivined

The world was turning slowly into gold.

Like nothing that was ever bought or sold

It waited there, the body and the mind;

And with a mighty meaning of a kind

That tells the more the more it is not told.

So, in a land where all days are not fair,

Fair days went on till on another day

A thousand gold sheaves were lying there....

Shining and still...

...but not for long to stay...

As if a thousand girls with gold hair

Might rise from where they slept....

...and go away.

Photographs 2026 this poem "the Sheaves" is in the public domain