The Corn Harvest

William Carlos Williams

Summer !
the painting is organized
about a young

reaper enjoying his
noonday rest
completely

relaxed
from his morning labors
sprawled

in fact sleeping
unbuttoned
on his back

the women
have brought him his lunch
perhaps

a spot of wine
they gather gossiping
under a tree

whose shade
carelessly
he does not share the

resting
center of
their workaday world

Pieter Brueghel, The Harvesters (1565)

Oil on canvas, approximately 46.5 inches x 64 inches. Metropolitan Museum, New York City.

See also:

Robert Foerster, "Brueghel's Harvesters"

 


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