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Olney Hymns · Chapter

Hay-Time explained

The poem uses the imagery of mown grass to reflect on human mortality and the urgency of spiritual preparation.

What happens

The poem uses the imagery of mown grass to reflect on human mortality and the urgency of spiritual preparation. It warns against trusting in earthly life and emphasizes the need to be ready for death, which may lead either to everlasting pain or to eternal life with God.

Themes in this chapter

  • The Vanity of Worldly Things

    The grass and flowers, though green and gay, are cut down and fade, illustrating the fleeting nature of earthly life and the folly of trusting in it.

  • Hope of Heaven and Eternal Life

    The poem contrasts the fate of the grass (which revives no more) with the hope that the soul, freed from sin, may spring to God after death.

Characters to notice

  • The Lord

    Addressed in the final stanza as the one who helps believers obey his call and sets them free from sin.

  • Death

    Personified as the mower who cuts down thousands, symbolizing the inevitability of physical death.

Key passages

  • “The grass and flow’rs which clothe the field, And look so green and gay, Touch’d by the scythe, defenceless yield, And fall and fade away.”

    The grass and flowers that cover the field, appearing fresh and cheerful, are cut down by the scythe without resistance, withering and disappearing.

    The opening stanza sets the central metaphor of human mortality.

  • “Ah! trust not to your fleeting breath, Nor call your time your own; Around you see the scythe of death Is mowing thousands down.”

    Do not rely on your short-lived life or think your time is yours; all around you, death is cutting down many people like a mower.

    A warning against complacency and a reminder of death's constant presence.

  • “The grass, when dead, revives no more; You die to live again; But oh! if death should prove the door To everlasting pain!”

    Once the grass is dead, it does not grow again; you die but will live again—but what if death turns out to be the entrance to eternal suffering?

    Contrasts the finality of physical death with the eternal consequences of the afterlife.

  • “Lord, help us to obey thy call, That from our sins set free, When, like the grass, our bodies fall, Our souls may spring to thee.”

    Lord, help us to respond to your call, so that being freed from our sins, when our bodies die like the grass, our souls may rise to you.

    A prayer for grace and the hope of eternal life.

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