LIFE flows quite smoothly through our house, The weeks and week-ends gently meet; We both like olives, samp and souse, We're neither keen for Injun wheat; There's jest one flaw that mars the ring, One wakeful place in life's sweet dream— My wife maintains, up hill and down, A one-horse rig is not a "team." You see my lady's native state Is laved by Mississippi's tide; There wonders happen while you wait, There roads are level, long and wide; A land where four-horse turnouts speed, Where plows and harrows go by steam, And 'tisn't strange she doesn't call A little one-horse rig a "team." A red-wheeled hitch-up oft goes past Our house and stains the winder panes; The harness gleams, the horse steps fast, The driver leans against the reins; I always watch that glittering rig— It's what the boys would call "a scream"— I also always hear these words, "I s'pose he thinks he's got a 'team'." And when I say in accents fine— "It 'pears to my Vermontish mind A man is in the teaming line Who drives a horse and sets behind," I get this answer, "No; my dear, It wouldn't be no more extreme To say the boy who rides one mule Or leads one donkey has a 'team.'" It's sure a subject nice and new— A "case" for any arguing man— One horse, of course, is less than two, If one's a team, then what's a span? I don't give in, though I admit How well my wife pursues her theme; But, Shucks! I'd jest as lives a-walk As ride around in half a "team." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SLEEPING TOGETHER by KATHERINE MANSFIELD PSALM 19. COELI ENARRANT by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE PSALM 79 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE FIAMMETTA: SONNET. TO DANTE IN PARADISE by GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO EPIGRAM ON ELPHINSTONE'S TRANSLATION OF MARTIAL'S EPIGRAMS by ROBERT BURNS THE GIAOUR; A FRAGMENT OF A TURKISH TALE by GEORGE GORDON BYRON |