"The Harvest Moon" appeared in Season Songs (1975), a collection Ted Hughes originally intended to write for children but ended up gearing more toward adults. The poem's language is playful, almost nursery rhyme-like, but the scene it paints is alarming: a harvest moon (a full moon in the month of September) that mysteriously disturbs and fascinates people, animals, and plants alike. As the giant red orb grows bigger and bigger, it seems to herald "the end of the world"—or maybe just the coming of winter.
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The Full Text of “The Harvest Moon”
The Full Text of “The Harvest Moon”
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“The Harvest Moon” Summary
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“The Harvest Moon” Themes
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Seasonal Change and Disruption
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-19
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Fear, Awe, and the Apocalypse
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Line 1
- Lines 6-19
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Harvest Moon”
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Lines 1-5
The flame-red moon, ...
... a gold doubloon. -
Lines 6-8
The harvest moon ...
... a deep drum. -
Lines 9-12
So people can't ...
... moon has come! -
Lines 13-16
And all the ...
... of the world. -
Lines 17-19
Till the gold ...
... the melting hills.
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“The Harvest Moon” Symbols
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The Harvest Moon
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 1-7
- Line 12
- Lines 13-16
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“The Harvest Moon” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 2: “bouncing”
- Line 3: “balloon”
- Line 4: “Till,” “takes”
- Line 5: “lie,” “like”
- Line 7: “Booming,” “bassoon”
- Line 8: “deep drum”
- Line 18: “ripe, reap,” “rivers”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “moon,” “moon”
- Line 3: “balloon”
- Line 5: “lie,” “sky,” “like,” “doubloon”
- Line 6: “moon”
- Line 7: “Booming,” “bassoon”
- Line 8: “replies,” “night”
- Line 9: “people,” “sleep”
- Line 10: “trees keep”
- Line 11: “kneeling,” “vigil,” “religious”
- Line 14: “swells”
- Line 15: “Filling,” “heaven,” “if,” “red”
- Line 17: “Till,” “fields,” “stiff,” “wheat”
- Line 18: “Cry,” “We,” “ripe,” “reap,” “rivers”
- Line 19: “Sweat,” “melting,” “hills”
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Personification
Where personification appears in the poem:- Lines 10-11: “So they go out where elms and oak trees keep / A kneeling vigil, in a religious hush.”
- Lines 14-16: “Stare up at her petrified, while she swells / Filling heaven, as if red hot, and sailing / Closer and closer like the end of the world.”
- Lines 17-19: “Till the gold fields of stiff wheat / Cry 'We are ripe, reap us!' and the rivers / Sweat from the melting hills.”
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Repetition
Where repetition appears in the poem:- Line 1: “The,” “moon, the harvest moon,”
- Line 4: “Till”
- Line 6: “The harvest moon has come,”
- Line 8: “And”
- Line 9: “So”
- Line 10: “So”
- Line 12: “The harvest moon has come!”
- Line 13: “And all the,” “moonlit,” “and all the”
- Line 16: “Closer,” “closer”
- Line 17: “Till”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Line 5: “To lie on the bottom of the sky, like a gold doubloon.”
- Lines 6-7: “The harvest moon has come, / Booming softly through heaven, like a bassoon.”
- Line 8: “And the earth replies all night, like a deep drum.”
- Lines 14-16: “while she swells / Filling heaven, as if red hot, and sailing / Closer and closer like the end of the world.”
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Metaphor
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Lines 1-4: “The flame-red moon, the harvest moon, / Rolls along the hills, gently bouncing, / A vast balloon, / Till it takes off, and sinks upward”
- Lines 18-19: “and the rivers / Sweat from the melting hills.”
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Allusion
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Line 1: “The flame-red moon, the harvest moon,”
- Lines 13-19: “And all the moonlit cows and all the sheep / Stare up at her petrified, while she swells / Filling heaven, as if red hot, and sailing / Closer and closer like the end of the world. / Till the gold fields of stiff wheat / Cry 'We are ripe, reap us!' and the rivers / Sweat from the melting hills.”
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“The Harvest Moon” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Harvest moon
- Doubloon
- Bassoon
- Vigil
- Petrified
- Reap
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “The flame-red moon, the harvest moon,”; Line 6: “The harvest moon has come,”; Line 12: “The harvest moon has come!”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Harvest Moon”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Harvest Moon” Speaker
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“The Harvest Moon” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Harvest Moon”
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More “The Harvest Moon” Resources
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External Resources
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A Hughes Documentary — Watch a film about Hughes's life and poetry.
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Hughes, Remembered — Read the 1998 New York Times obituary of Hughes, which discusses his controversial life and career.
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An Interview with Hughes and Plath — Listen to a 1961 joint interview with Hughes and his first wife, American poet Sylvia Plath.
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The Poet's Life and Work — Read a short biography of Ted Hughes at the Poetry Foundation.
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Exploring Hughes's Poems — Three scholars at Cambridge, Hughes's alma mater, discuss the poet's work.
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What's a Harvest Moon? — Learn more about the harvest moon from The Old Farmer's Almanac.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Ted Hughes
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