On Summer by George Moses Horton: poem analysis & meaning

On Summer the full poem, lines numbered

Esteville fire begins to burn;

The auburn fields of harvest rise;

The torrid flames again return,

And thunders roll along the skies.

5Perspiring Cancer lifts his head,

And roars terrific from on high;

Whose voice the timid creatures dread,

From which they strive with awe to fly.

The night-hawk ventures from his cell,

10And starts his note in evening air;

He feels the heat his bosom swell,

Which drives away the gloom of fear.

Thou noisy insect, start thy drum;

Rise lamp-like bugs to light the train;

15And bid sweet Philomela come,

And sound in front the nightly strain.

The bee begins her ceaseless hum,

And doth with sweet exertions rise;

And with delight she stores her comb,

20And well her rising stock supplies.

Let sportive children well beware,

While sprightly frisking o’er the green;

And carefully avoid the snare,

Which lurks beneath the smiling scene.

25The mistress bird assumes her nest,

And broods in silence on the tree,

Her note to cease, her wings at rest,

She patient waits her young to see.

The farmer hastens from the heat;

30The weary plough-horse droops his head;

The cattle all at noon retreat,

And ruminate beneath the shade.

The burdened ox with dauntless rage,

Flies heedless to the liquid flood,

35From which he quaffs, devoid of guage,

Regardless of his driver’s rod.

Pomacious orchards now expand

Their laden branches o’er the lea;

And with their bounty fill the land,

40While plenty smiles on every tree.

On fertile borders, near the stream,

Now gaze with pleasure and delight;

See loaded vines with melons teem—

’Tis paradise to human sight.

45With rapture view the smiling fields,

Adorn the mountain and the plain,

Each, on the eve of Autumn, yields

A large supply of golden grain.

The poem in 60 seconds

George Moses Horton was enslaved in North Carolina when this poem appeared in The Hope of Liberty (1829), a book published in hopes of raising money to buy his freedom. That freedom did not come then; it came in 1865, at the end of the Civil War. The poem itself never mentions slavery. It follows a summer in farm country from burning heat to golden grain, and it keeps setting delight beside dread.

Summer’s fire starts to burn, the harvest fields ripen, the heat returns and thunder rolls across the sky. The sign of Cancer, pictured as a sweating figure, lifts its head and roars from on high, and timid creatures try to flee its voice. At evening the night-hawk comes out and sings, the heat swelling its breast and driving away its fear. The speaker calls on a noisy insect to drum, on glowing bugs to light the procession, and for the nightingale to lead the night’s song.

The bee hums and fills her comb. Children playing on the grass are warned to avoid a snare hidden in the pleasant scene. A mother bird sits silently on her nest, waiting for her young. The farmer hurries out of the heat, the plough-horse droops, and at noon the cattle rest in the shade. A burdened ox rushes to the water and drinks without limit, ignoring his driver’s rod.

Then orchards spread heavy branches, vines by a stream are loaded with melons, and the speaker calls the sight paradise. The poem closes on fields that, on the eve of autumn, yield a large supply of golden grain.

Speaker & situation

SpeakerAn unnamed observer who knows farm country well. The speaker describes, gives orders to insects, warns children and invites the reader to look, but shares no personal details. Readers who link the voice to Horton are drawing on his life, not on anything the poem states.

Addressed toMostly no one in particular. In lines 13 and 14 the speaker speaks straight to a “noisy insect” and the “lamp-like bugs.” Line 21 warns children indirectly, and lines 42 to 45 turn to the reader with the commands “gaze,” “See” and “view.”

OccasionThe arrival and height of summer, followed through its heat, its evening and night sounds, its farm work and its harvest.

SettingFarm country with fields, a nesting tree, a stream, orchards, a meadow, a mountain and a plain. The poem names no place. Horton lived in North Carolina, but the text itself does not say where the scene is.

ToneAdmiring and often joyful, rising to “rapture” in line 45. Words of fear and force run through the first three quarters, though: “dread” (line 7), “fear” (line 12), “snare” (line 23), “rage” (line 33) and “rod” (line 36).

Form & sound

FormLyric poem; twelve quatrains (four-line stanzas), each a small scene of summer. In order they show the heat, a sign in the sky, a night bird, insects, a bee, children at play, a nesting bird, the farm at noon, an ox, orchards, melon vines and grain.

MeterIambic tetrameter: eight syllables in four unstressed-stressed pairs. Line 29 scans regularly as the FARMer HAStens FROM the HEAT. Line 47 opens on a stressed syllable, EACH, on the EVE of AUtumn YIELDS, a common variation, and the comma after “Each” adds a pause near the close.

Rhyme schemeABAB in every stanza: the first and third lines rhyme, and so do the second and fourth, as in burn and return, rise and skies (lines 1–4). Most rhymes are exact. A few are near rhymes to a modern ear, such as air and fear (lines 10 and 12), hum and comb (lines 17 and 19), head and shade (lines 30 and 32), and flood and rod (lines 34 and 36). Pronunciation in Horton’s time and place may have made some of these closer.

SoundSound words carry much of the season: “thunders roll” (line 4), Cancer “roars” (line 6), the insect has a “drum” (line 13) and the bee a “ceaseless hum” (line 17). Alliteration links “hastens” and “heat” (line 29), “Regardless” and “rod” (line 36), and “golden grain” (line 48).

TextThis text follows the 1829 first printing, whose spellings “Pomacious” (line 37) and “guage” (line 35) the exam prints as “Pomaceous” and “gauge.” “Devoid of guage” in line 35 probably means without measure. The exam glosses “Esteville” (line 1) as a town in North Carolina.

Line by line what each part says and does

1

Lines 1–8

Summer arrives in fire

The season opens with “Esteville fire,” ripening harvest fields, “torrid flames” and rolling thunder. In lines 5 to 8 the sign of Cancer, pictured as a sweating figure, lifts its head and roars, and the timid creatures dread its voice and try to flee.

How it worksHorton begins with force, not gentleness. The meaning of “Esteville” is uncertain: the 2024 AP exam glosses it as a town in North Carolina, while some readers link it to “estival,” from the Latin aestivus, “of summer.” Cancer is most likely the constellation and zodiac sign linked with midsummer, so the opening speaks in the learned style of the poetry of the day. The roar may be the thunder of line 4, now given to the sky’s summer sign.
2

Lines 9–16

Evening and night music

At evening the night-hawk leaves its hiding place and begins its call; it feels the heat swell its breast, and the heat drives away its fear. The speaker then orders a noisy insect to start its drum, tells the “lamp-like bugs,” probably fireflies, to rise and light the procession, and asks for “sweet Philomela,” a traditional poetic name for the nightingale, to be called to lead the night’s song.

How it worksDescription turns into command, as if the speaker were conducting an orchestra of night creatures. The formal “Thou” and “thy” and the classical name Philomela raise the tone of the scene.
3

Lines 17–28

Busy creatures and a hidden snare

The bee hums, rises to work and stores her comb. Playful children are warned to watch out, as they frisk on the grass, for a snare that “lurks beneath the smiling scene.” A mother bird settles on her nest in silence, her song stopped and her wings still, waiting to see her young.

How it worksThe bee and the brooding bird show patient, productive work, and between them sits the poem’s clearest warning. The poem never says what the snare is. It may be a literal danger hidden in the grass, and it can also be read as a hint that pleasant surfaces can hide traps.
4

Lines 29–36

The farm at noon

The farmer hurries out of the heat, the weary plough-horse droops its head, and at noon the cattle retreat to the shade to “ruminate,” or chew the cud. A “burdened ox” in “dauntless rage” rushes to the water and drinks deeply “devoid of guage,” probably meaning without measure, ignoring his driver’s rod.

How it worksHere summer means hard labor, and every figure is a worker, human or animal, pressed by the heat. The ox is the one creature that defies control, and a reader who knows Horton’s situation may notice a driven, overworked animal that ignores the rod, though the poem draws no such comparison itself.
5

Lines 37–48

Orchards, melons and golden grain

“Pomacious” orchards, most likely meaning apple-bearing ones, spread their loaded branches over the lea, a meadow, and “plenty smiles on every tree.” The speaker tells the reader to gaze at the fertile land by a stream, where vines are heavy with melons, and calls the sight “paradise.” The poem ends with smiling fields across mountain and plain, each yielding “A large supply of golden grain” on the eve of autumn.

How it worksThe pressures of the middle stanzas give way to abundance, and the speaker’s commands (“gaze,” “See,” “view”) ask the reader to share the delight. The golden grain of line 48 answers the “auburn fields of harvest” in line 2, so the poem ends where it began, with ripening fields.

The turn

Lines 37

The poem turns from summer’s pressures to its plenty. Up to line 36, delight keeps company with dread, fear, a hidden snare, weary animals and an ox under the rod. From line 37 on, orchards and fields offer “bounty” (line 39) and “paradise” (line 44), and the speaker begins inviting the reader to look. Because the poem is a sequence of scenes, this is a gradual change rather than a sharp turn.

Literary devices with line numbers

Personification

In lines 5 and 6, Cancer “lifts his head” and “roars terrific from on high,” as if the summer sign were a living creature, and “Perspiring” gives it the sweat of the season. Here “terrific” has its older sense of causing terror. Later, “plenty smiles on every tree” (line 40) and the fields are “smiling” (line 45). The personified sky frightens and the personified land welcomes, which matches the poem’s movement from dread to plenty, though the “smiling scene” of line 24 hides a snare.

Apostrophe

In line 13 the speaker addresses a creature that cannot answer: “Thou noisy insect, start thy drum.” Line 14 commands the “lamp-like bugs” to rise, and lines 15 and 16 ask for Philomela to be called to sing. The commands make the speaker a kind of conductor of the night’s music, and the old pronouns “Thou” and “thy” give the moment formal dignity.

Classical allusion and learned diction

Line 15 names “sweet Philomela.” In Greek myth Philomela was a woman turned into a bird, and in English poetry her name usually means the nightingale. Nightingales do not live wild in North America, so the name most likely comes from poetic tradition rather than from a bird the speaker heard. Other learned words work the same way: “Pomacious” (line 37), most likely meaning apple-bearing, and “ruminate” (line 32). The self-taught poet writes fluently in the literary language of his day.

Catalogue

The poem moves through a long list of living things: the night-hawk (line 9), a noisy insect (line 13), “lamp-like bugs” (line 14), the bee (line 17), children (line 21), a mother bird (line 25), the farmer, plough-horse and cattle (lines 29 to 31), and the ox (line 33). Each gets a stanza or part of one, so summer is shown through the different ways creatures live through it.

Juxtaposition of delight and danger

Lines 23 and 24 warn of a snare that “lurks beneath the smiling scene.” The poem sets threat beside pleasure more than once: the creatures dread Cancer’s roar (lines 7 and 8) just after the harvest fields rise in line 2, and the “burdened ox” in “dauntless rage” (line 33) comes just before the orchards’ “bounty” (line 39). The contrast keeps the praise of summer from being simple.

Double meaning

In line 32 the cattle “ruminate beneath the shade.” To ruminate is to chew the cud, as cattle do, and also to think something over. The word may give the resting animals a moment of quiet thought, one of several places where creatures seem to share human feelings, like the night-hawk whose warmth “drives away the gloom of fear” in line 12.

Themes in On Summer

Summer’s double natureWork and restAbundance as paradiseFreedom and constraint, as a reading

Summer’s double nature

The season brings both fire and harvest. The first eight lines are full of flames, thunder and a frightening roar, and the middle of the poem shows weary animals and a warning about a snare. The last twelve lines turn the same heat into orchards, melons and grain, so the poem presents summer as hard and generous at once.

Work and rest

The bee stores her comb (line 19), the mother bird waits patiently on her nest (lines 25 to 28), and the farmer, plough-horse and cattle seek relief from the noon heat (lines 29 to 32). The poem pays close attention to labor and to the need for shade and rest, and the harvest at the end is the reward of that work.

Abundance as paradise

Lines 37 to 48 heap up images of plenty: “laden branches,” “bounty,” “loaded vines,” “golden grain.” Line 44 calls the view “paradise to human sight,” and the speaker’s commands to “gaze” and “view” invite the reader into that delight.

Freedom and constraint, as a reading

The poem never mentions slavery. It appeared, though, in a book titled The Hope of Liberty, published in hopes of raising money to buy Horton’s freedom, and a reader who knows this may notice creatures under pressure: timid creatures that “strive with awe to fly” (line 8), a snare beneath a smiling scene (lines 23 and 24), and an ox that drinks “Regardless of his driver’s rod” (line 36). These are interpretations, not statements the poem makes. Another way to read it is as a skilled nature poem whose command of traditional forms was itself a claim for its enslaved author.

Images and symbols

The snare

The snare of lines 23 and 24 “lurks beneath the smiling scene.” The poem never says what it is, which lets it stand for any danger hidden under a pleasant surface.

The ox and the rod

The “burdened ox” of lines 33 to 36 is an overworked animal that, for a moment, obeys its thirst instead of its driver. The driver’s rod stands for control by force, and the ox’s “dauntless rage” can suggest a will that force has not broken.

Golden grain

The final image, in line 48, is the harvest. It stands for the reward of summer’s heat and labor, and it points ahead to autumn, since the fields yield their grain “on the eve of Autumn” (line 47).

Patterns

Fire and heat. The heat appears as “fire” (line 1) and “torrid flames” (line 3), makes Cancer “Perspiring” (line 5), swells the night-hawk’s breast (line 11) and sends the farmer hurrying away from it (line 29). It is the force behind both the season’s hardships and its harvest.

Smiling. The word returns three times: the “smiling scene” that hides a snare (line 24), the plenty that “smiles on every tree” (line 40) and the “smiling fields” (line 45). The first use is a warning, and the later ones are praise, so the repeated smile carries both trust and caution.

Tensions

Pleasure vs. danger. Children at play, humming bees and ripe orchards share the poem with dread, fear and a hidden snare. The poem does not resolve the tension, though its last stanzas lean toward delight.

Freedom vs. control. The ox in lines 33 to 36 rushes to the water in “dauntless rage,” “Regardless of his driver’s rod.” For a moment the driven animal follows its own need instead of the driver’s will.

The ending

How On Summer ends, explained

The last two stanzas turn the poem into an invitation. Line 42 tells the reader to “gaze with pleasure and delight” at fertile ground by a stream, line 43 says “See” the vines heavy with melons, and line 44 calls the sight “paradise.” The final stanza asks the reader to “view” the “smiling fields” across mountain and plain, and it ends with each field yielding “A large supply of golden grain” on “the eve of Autumn.”

On its surface the ending is a harvest celebration. The fire of line 1 has done its work, and the “auburn fields of harvest” of line 2 have become golden grain, so the poem closes where it began.

Readers weigh the ending in different ways. One reading takes it as a straightforward pastoral close, in which the season’s hardships are the price of plenty. Another notices that this paradise comes after a snare hidden beneath a “smiling scene” (line 24), so the “smiling fields” of line 45 may carry a trace of that warning. A reader who connects the poem to Horton’s enslavement may also notice that the poem never says who works these fields, apart from “The farmer” of line 29 and the ox’s unnamed driver. The poem itself makes no such point. Held together, these readings let the ending praise abundance while leaving room to ask who enjoys it.

“Perspiring Cancer lifts his head, / And roars terrific from on high;”

Lines 5–6. The summer sign becomes a sweating, roaring figure. “Terrific” means causing terror here, and line 7 confirms it: the timid creatures “dread” this voice.

“And carefully avoid the snare, / Which lurks beneath the smiling scene.”

Lines 23–24. The poem’s clearest warning. The pleasant surface hides a danger the poem never names, which makes the lines central to any reading of the poem as more than simple praise of summer.

“The burdened ox with dauntless rage, / Flies heedless to the liquid flood, / From which he quaffs, devoid of guage, / Regardless of his driver’s rod.”

Lines 33–36. A worn-out animal drinks without measure and ignores the rod. A reader who connects the poem to Horton’s situation may start here, though the stanza itself describes only the ox.

“See loaded vines with melons teem— / ’Tis paradise to human sight.”

Lines 43–44. The speaker commands the reader to look and names the scene paradise, the high point of the poem’s turn from pressure to plenty.

Common misreadings

MythThe poem is about slavery.

ActuallyThe poem never mentions slavery; it describes a summer season. Readings that connect its snare, its driven ox or its fearful creatures to Horton’s enslavement are interpretations drawn from his life and from the book the poem appeared in, and they should be presented that way.

Myth“Cancer” in line 5 is the disease.

ActuallyHere Cancer is the constellation and zodiac sign linked with midsummer. The poem pictures it as a sweating figure that “lifts his head” and roars (lines 5–6).

Myth“Terrific” in line 6 means wonderful.

ActuallyIn 1829 the word commonly meant causing terror. Line 7 confirms that sense: the “timid creatures dread” the roaring voice.

AP practice a poetry prompt in the exam's style

Read George Moses Horton’s “On Summer,” first printed in 1829 in a book published in hopes of raising money to buy his freedom. Then write an essay that analyzes how Horton uses literary elements and techniques to convey a complex perspective on the pressures and the plenty of the summer season.

What a strong response notices

Lines 1–8: fire, “torrid flames,” thunder and the roaring, sweating sign of Cancer open the season with force and fear rather than gentleness.
Lines 13–16: apostrophe to the insect and the “lamp-like bugs,” along with the allusion to Philomela, shows the speaker directing nature’s music in a learned style.
Lines 23–24: the snare that “lurks beneath the smiling scene” warns that pleasure can hide danger.
Lines 33–36: the “burdened ox” in “dauntless rage” drinks without measure, “Regardless of his driver’s rod,” an image of labor, exhaustion and defiance.
Lines 42–48: the commands “gaze,” “See” and “view,” the word “paradise” (line 44) and the “golden grain” (line 48) end the poem in abundance, while the steady ABAB quatrains hold every scene in order.

Practice prompt written by StoryBites, not taken from a College Board exam. See the AP Literature free-response guide for how answers are scored.

Test yourself

1. What is the rhyme scheme of each stanza?

2. What does “Cancer” most likely refer to in line 5?

3. Who is “Philomela” in line 15?

4. What are the children warned about in lines 21–24?

5. What does the ox do in lines 33–36?

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Answer

Explain it like I’m 12

George Moses Horton was an enslaved man in North Carolina who taught himself to read and wrote poems. This poem describes summer one small scene at a time. It starts with burning heat and thunder, then moves to a night bird, insects and fireflies. It shows a busy bee, children at play, a mother bird on her nest and tired farm animals looking for shade. It warns that danger can hide in a pretty place. At the end the orchards and fields are full of fruit and grain, and the speaker calls it paradise. The poem never talks about slavery, but some readers think of Horton’s life when they read about the tired ox and the hidden trap.

Compare & connect

London’s Summer Morning

Mary Robinson

Another summer poem built as a catalogue of scenes. Robinson’s crowded city streets and Horton’s farm country make a sharp pair, and both poems notice the work going on behind the season.

Autumn

Alice Cary

Cary’s poem begins where Horton’s ends, as summer gives way to autumn. Both poets personify the season and its creatures, but Cary’s mood is one of loss while Horton’s closes in plenty.

On Being Brought from Africa to America

Phillis Wheatley

An earlier African American poet who wrote fluently in the formal verse of her day. Wheatley’s poem speaks about race directly, while Horton’s leaves any connection to his situation for readers to draw.

Discussion and essay prompts:

💬 Discussion questions

What is On Summer by George Moses Horton about
What is the rhyme scheme of On Summer by George Moses Horton
What does Esteville mean in On Summer
How does On Summer explore the theme of summer’s double nature?
How does On Summer explore the theme of work and rest?
What is the central conflict in On Summer, and how does it shape the ending?

✎ Essay prompts

Analyze how George Moses Horton develops the theme of summer’s double nature in On Summer. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
Examine the significance of the snare in On Summer. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
How does George Moses Horton use personification to shape the reader’s experience of On Summer?
Some readers assume that the poem is about slavery. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.

Key questions students ask

What is On Summer by George Moses Horton about
What is the rhyme scheme of On Summer by George Moses Horton
What does Esteville mean in On Summer
Who is Philomela in On Summer by George Moses Horton
Is On Summer by George Moses Horton about slavery
What is the tone of On Summer by George Moses Horton

Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The poem is printed from the first edition of The Hope of Liberty (Raleigh: J. Gales & Son, 1829), as transcribed by Documenting the American South (University of North Carolina) and checked against the 1837 reprint. It is in the public domain.