A cornfield is an expanse devoted to cereal cultivation; in British usage, corn can refer broadly to the chief local grain rather than maize alone. Its ordered rows, tall stalks, changing colours, and movement in wind make it a powerful visual landscape. In poetry, the cornfield signifies nourishment, fertility, labour, and harvest, but it may also conceal danger or mystery. Golden cornfields often suggest fulfilment, whereas trampled, burnt, or barren fields imply war, loss, or failed abundance.

Cornfield may refer to a field of maize in American usage, but in traditional British poetry corn can mean the principal cereal crop, often wheat or barley. This difference is important when visualising a poem. Tall stalks, rustling leaves, golden heads, and wind moving like waves all provide strong imagery. Cornfields may symbolise fertility, concealment, harvest, or threatened food supply. Related terms include wheatfield, maize, cereal, grain, harvest, sheaf, stubble, and reaping.