Adelaide Crapsey (1878–1914) was an American poet best known for her innovations in poetic form, particularly the cinquain, as well as for her subtle religious and existential themes. “Harvesters Song” is a brief but striking lyric that fuses sacred imagery with a strong undercurrent of irony and sorrow. Beneath its simplicity lies a haunting meditation on faith, deprivation, and the paradox of abundance and want.
Text of the Poem
Reap, reap the grain and gather
The sweet grapes from the vine;
Our Lord’s mother is weeping,
She hath nor bread nor wine;
She is weeping. The Queen of Heaven,
She hath nor bread nor wine.
Form and Structure
The poem consists of only six lines, with a simple rhythmic and repetitive pattern akin to a folk song or hymn. Its alternating three- and four-beat lines create a gentle cadence, resembling the measured pace of harvesting or of devotional chant. The repetition of certain phrases—most notably “bread nor wine”—gives the poem its echoing, lament-like quality, suggesting both ritual prayer and unending grief.
Crapsey’s minimalist approach heightens the poem’s emotional force: in a mere handful of lines, she compresses deep theological contradiction and humanitarian pathos.
Imagery and Symbolism
At first glance, the imagery of “reaping grain” and “gathering grapes” evokes harvest and plenty—symbols traditionally associated with nourishment, thanksgiving, and divine providence. However, this promise of abundance is immediately undercut by the revelation that “Our Lord’s mother is weeping, / She hath nor bread nor wine.”
This juxtaposition creates a powerful irony: while the world is harvesting its bounty, the Virgin Mary, “Queen of Heaven”, symbol of spiritual nourishment and compassion, is depicted as hungry and bereft.
Bread and wine carry layered meanings. On one level, they represent the literal necessities of life; on another, they are central to Christian Eucharistic symbolism—emblems of the body and blood of Christ. To say that the “Queen of Heaven” has neither “bread nor wine” may signify a loss of divine grace, the absence of spiritual communion, or a world that has turned away from sacred compassion.
The image of Mary weeping thus becomes a microcosm for human suffering in the midst of plenty—a world materially rich but spiritually famished.
Tone and Mood
The tone of the poem is somber and reverent, yet subtly indicting. There is tenderness in the depiction of Mary’s sorrow, but also quiet outrage in the moral dissonance of the scene: why should the Queen of Heaven hunger while humankind reaps and feasts?
Crapsey’s choice to invoke Mary not as an exalted figure but as one of deprivation humanises divinity and simultaneously criticises social and spiritual complacency. The calm rhythm of the poem makes the pathos even more potent—like a lullaby sung through tears.
Themes
- Spiritual Poverty Amid Material Abundance:
The central paradox of the poem—harvest and hunger—symbolises humanity’s failure to translate material prosperity into moral compassion. - Divine Sorrow and Human Neglect:
The weeping Mary serves as both an image of divine empathy and a reproach to a callous world. Her tears reflect not personal sorrow but collective guilt. - Religious Irony and Reversal:
Crapsey inverts traditional Christian iconography: instead of offering bread and wine, the faithful leave their divine mother empty-handed. The sacred is portrayed as destitute amid the profane. - The Silence of God:
Implicit in Mary’s tears is an absence—the unanswered prayer, the divine turned voiceless in the face of human indifference.
Interpretation and Context
Crapsey wrote in the early twentieth century, an era marked by religious doubt, social upheaval, and nascent modernism. Though her poetry rarely engages directly in politics, “Harvesters Song” can be read as both religious lament and existential commentary.
The poet’s delicate balance between faith and despair creates an effect similar to that of Christina Rossetti’s devotional poems or the symbolic compression found in Emily Dickinson’s work. Like Dickinson, Crapsey articulates vast emotional landscapes within tight formal constraints.