Sun-tanned men and women, toiling there together;
Seven I count it in all, in yon field of wheat,
Where the rich ripe ears in the harvest weather
Glow an orange gold through the sweltering heat.

Busy life is still, sunk in brooding leisure;
Birds have hushed their singing in the hushed tree-tops;
Not a single cloud mars the flawless azure;
Not a shadow moves o'er the moveless crops.

In the glassy shallows, that no breath is creasing,
Chestnut-coloured cows in the rushes dank
Stand like cows of bronze, save when they flick the teasing
Files with switch of tall from each quivering flank.

Nature takes a rest−even her bees are sleeping,
And the silent wood seems a church that's shut;
But these human creatures cease not from their reaping
While the corn stands high, waiting to be cut.

Mathilde Blind (1841 - 1896) was a German-born British poet. Her first known production was a German ode. Her visit to Scotland inspired two poems of considerable compass: The Prophesy of St. Oran and The Heather on Fire. She wrote about George Elliot and Madame Roland in the Eminent Women series. Dramas in Miniature and Songs and Sonnets comprise her later works. Her works were praised by the well known British poet Matthew Arnold and French historian Louis Blanc.

1. azure: blue
2. rushes: grass-like tall plants that grow near water
3. dank: damp and cold
4. flank: side part of an animal between its ribs and hip bone