CANDIDATING IN VERMONT by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY

YOU bet that folks up here this week
Set up and noticed, when they read
How much it cost in old Vermont
To keep an inside horse ahead;
It's quite a generous sum to pay
To show the voters what they want;
It also shows the need of dough
To run for office in Vermont.

I guess a lot of common folks
Will add, subtract and then divide
To see jest why it comes so high
To keep an outside horse outside;
You wouldn't s'pose 'twould cost so much
To show the voters what they want—
It ain't no place for poor folks, sure,
To run for office in Vermont.

I guess that Edmunds when he read
That item made an Edmunds pause,
And wondered why a man will spend
So much to help to make the laws;
I guess if Morrill might return
To earth from his eternal jaunt
He'd think that office comes quite high
These days in honest old Vermont.

I'd like to be "upstairs" and hear
What Foot and Collamer will say
When they find out how much it costs
To draw the senatorial pay;
I guess you'd hear 'em both remark—
"There ain't a single thing we want;
We bless the Lord that we are through
With candidating in Vermont."

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...