Question

Read the lines from The Elements of San Joaquín.

The sky went black in the ninth hour of rolling trays,

And in the distance ropes of rain dropped to pull me

From the thick harvest that was not mine.

Which statement is a theme in this excerpt?

The land is fruitful and ever changing.
The workers labor very hard for other people.
Workers should not be asked to work at night.
The land supports those who tend its fields.

Answer 1

Workers labor very hard for other people.

The speaker describes harvesting a "thick harvest that was not mine" (working someone else's crop) and continuing through bad weather, which emphasizes laboring hard on behalf of others.