Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, VACATION HINTS FOR YOUNG VERMONTERS, by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

VACATION HINTS FOR YOUNG VERMONTERS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ho! All you young vermonters
Last Line: The state you're living in.
Subject(s): Animals; Camping; Country Life; Deer; Hunting; Mountain Life - Vermont; Vacation; Camps; Summer Camps; Hunters


HO! all you young Vermonters
That city life pursue—
What know you of the country life
Your daddies came up through,
Or of the rural simplex world
Your mothers slipped into?

You girls have been a-wearing silks
Your whole glad earthly way;
Your mothers wore their first silk gowns
Upon their wedding day;
You boys have had more clothes and things
Than my old pen can say.

You've lived your pretty, townish lives
At home, at play, at school;
You've had your time for basketball
And "hearts" and parlor pool;
You've only had to touch a spring
If you was warm or cool.

But you have never seen a loon
Enjoy a one-legged nap;
You've never had your sapyoke slip
And spill two pails of sap;
You've never peeled a hemlock log
Or set a woodchuck trap.

You've never heard an adder hiss,
Or seen a weasel dart;
You've never followed up a stream
To find its baby start;
You've never smoked a raccoon out
Unless you're extry smart.

You've never watched a hedgehog hedge,
Or a flying squirrel fly;
You've never seen a "cradle" trim
The sandy-bearded rye,
Or heard the catbird's morning call
Or bobcat's midnight cry.

You've never helped to stone a well
With big encaustic tile;
You've never owned a hunting knife
That once was jest a file;
You've never found a gensing root
And cracked a dollar smile.

You've never seen 'em pluck a goose,
Or hold a nanny's feet
That wouldn't own her tiny lamb,
So that the lamb could eat;
You've never helped to stir the soap
Or cure the shoulder meat.

Ho! all you young Vermonters—
The city life is thin;
Get out into the hinterland
Where 'portant things begin;
Get out—see, hear, taste, touch and smell
The state you're living in.





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