What is the poem "Harvest Song" talking about?? I don't understand half of what Toomer is talking about. Somebody help me, PLEASE.

Here's the poem-

Harvest Song

I AM a reaper whose muscles set at sundown. All
my oats are cradled.
But I am too chilled, and too fatigued to bind them.
And I hunger.

I crack a grain between my teeth. I do not taste it.
I have been in the fields all day. My throat is dry.
I hunger.

My eyes are caked with dust of oatfields at harvest-time.
I am a blind man who stares across the hills, seeking
stack'd fields of other harvesters.

It would be good to see them . . crook'd, split, and
iron-ring'd handles of the scythes. It would be
good to see them, dust-caked and blind. I hunger.

(Dusk is a strange fear'd sheath their blades are dull'd in.)
My throat is dry. And should I call, a cracked grain
like the oats . . . eoho--

I fear to call. What should they hear me, and offer
me their grain, oats, or wheat, or corn? I have
been in the fields all day. I fear I could not taste
it. I fear knowledge of my hunger.

My ears are caked with dust of oatfields at harvest-time.
I am a deaf man who strains to hear the calls of other
harvesters whose throats are also dry.

It would be good to hear their songs . . reapers of
the sweet-stalk'd cane, cutters of the corn . .
even though their throats cracked and the
strangeness of their voices deafened me.

I hunger. My throat is dry. Now that the sun has
set and I am chilled, I fear to call. (Eoho, my
brothers!)

I am a reaper. (Eoho!) All my oats are cradled.
But I am too fatigued to bind them. And I hunger.
I crack a grain. It has no taste to it.
My throat is dry . . .

O my brothers, I beat my palms, still soft, against the
stubble of my harvesting. (You beat your soft
palms, too.) My pain is sweet. Sweeter than
the oats or wheat or corn. It will not bring me
knowledge of my hunger.

Jean Toomer

Here's the author:

[www.english.uiuc.edu]

[www.math.buffalo.edu]

Eoho, huh? Isn't that a search engine?

I think E-hoho is a virtual cupcake

He's tired, dirty, and feels alienated from the world.

If he's been in the fields working all day, his palms should either be hardened or blistered- not soft.

pam