Arts & Sciences

Women's Harvest Song

by Amy Lowell 1874–1925

From Ballads for Sale (1927): Songs of the Pueblo Indians

Arts & Sciences

I am waving a ripe sunflower,
I am scattering sunflower pollen to the four world-quarters.
I am joyful because of my melons,
I am joyful because of my beans,

I am joyful because of my squashes.

The sunflower waves.

So did the corn wave

When the wind blew against it,

So did my white corn bend
When the red lightning descended upon it,
It trembled as the sunflower

When the rain beat down its leaves.
Great is a ripe sunflower,
And great was the sun above my cornfields.
His fingers lifted up the corn-ears,
His hands fashioned my melons,
And set my beans full in the pods.
Therefore my heart is happy
And I will lay many blue prayer-sticks at the shrine of Ta-wa.

I will give corn to Ta-wa,
Yellow corn, blue corn, black corn.
I wave the sunflower,
The sunflower heavy with pollen.
I wave it,

I turn it,

I sing,

Because I am happy.

MLA

Lowell, Amy. “Women's Harvest Song.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/lowell_a/487/.

Chicago

Lowell, Amy. “Women's Harvest Song.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/lowell_a/487/.

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