Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE 'TRUE VERMONTER', by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE 'TRUE VERMONTER', by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis said the true vermonter's gait
Last Line: Is thunderation on a guess.
Subject(s): Cattle; Farm Life; Fields; Vermont; Agriculture; Farmers; Pastures; Meadows; Leas


'TIS said the true Vermonter's gait
Announces him in every state,
And that his language, dried and droll,
"Proclaims the man" from pole to pole;
The trait, however, that precedes
All other inbred streaks and leads,
Is nothing either more or less
Than his ability to guess.

I've been in Merritt Amsden's store
And seen a man come in the door,
A perfect stranger, bent and browned,
And who I know had never found
His way to Felchville 'fore that hour,
By foot or any other power,
And yet, By Gum! old Pappy Hess,
Who set there, nailed him with a guess.

"I'll bet," said Pappy, "that's the son
Of old man Jeremiah Munn;
I've heard that when he lived in Burke
He had a boy who wouldn't work
And run away to sea, and say;
That stranger's nose and clothes and way
The Munn idee to me express;
He's Jerry's chicken—that's my guess."

I've seen old Doctor Scott go by
So fast his gig wheels blurred your eye,
And Aunt Janette would up and say,
"I b'lieve he's heading Hartford way;
The governor sometimes has a spell
In June of not digesting well,
And Scott is good in 'cute distress;
That's what's a-happening—that's my guess."

I've seen Blind French, the market man,
A yoke of cattle girth and span,
Then kinder pat 'em on the flanks
And run his fingers down their shanks,
And then step back about a yard,
And say while he was chewing hard,
"You want to know how much they'll dress?
I'll tell you—but 'twon't be no guess."

I've seen a city splurge come back
And buy a farm all out of whack,
"Restore" the house, rebuild the barn,
And use up cash like Red Cross yarn;
I've also seen my grandma Shedd
Adjust her apern as she said,
"There's sech a thing as spendthriftness—
The town will board him yet, I guess."

And Pappy, Aunt and French and she
Was jest as right as they could be;
The runaway on sight was bagged,
The doctor's patient truly tagged;
The cattle had no more to say,
And Springfield laid The Splurge away—
The true Vermonter, I profess,
Is Thunderation on a guess.





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