THE hired man we knew of yore Deserves to come to life once more; Deserves, although the nations rage, To step again upon the stage And show, if not his knightly grace, His kinship with the human race: 'Twould seem 'twere well jest now to scan The fast receding hired man. In youth I met along my way A dozen hired men a day; I've seen him hunted up and hired, I've seen him fussed at, fit and fired; I've seen him rise to some renown And get to represent the town; The Strafford Free Will Church began Through preaching by a hired man. With him I've wheeled the woodpile in And fished where fish was awful thin; I knew his boots, I knew his cough, I've touched the pay that payed him off; I have a diary that he kept And own a bed on which he slept, The which, now scraped of much japan, Would quite enrich that hired man. I've also seen him disappear What time the sheriff's gig drew near; I've went with dad that very night Beyond the woods and left a light, A loaf of bread and dollar bill, Where he, perhaps, was hiding still; But no; he scorned our helpful plan— He cooked a sheep, that hired man. But most of them was straight and neat And paid their bills and scraped their feet; One used to even wash the eggs, One dusted off the grinstone legs; Two tracked acrost the kitchen floor, Two should have helped the old folks more, Three owned a colt and one a span— You see I've seen a hired man. One day I read a book that told About the Norman knights of old, And next day when we cut the swale I tipped the hired man the tale; "The Normans!" said he, "Oh! get out, You mean the Mormans past a doubt— Old Brigham Young and all his clan— A bad book," said the hired man. And though we had our troubles then We should have pensioned hired men; I asked a Chink to-day jest how He'd go to work to milk a cow, And quick as morphine he replied, "To milkum cow me get inside:" 'Tis well, indeed, at times to scan The past and present hired man. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CRANES OF IBYCUS by EMMA LAZARUS IDYLL 1. LAMENT FOR ADONIS by BION AN ORDER FOR A PICTURE by ALICE CARY EPISTLE TO ROBERT, EARL OF OXFORD, AND EARL MORTIMER by ALEXANDER POPE THE UNIVERSAL MOTHER by SABINE BARING-GOULD DEAD MEN'S LOVE by RUPERT BROOKE |