Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NATURE FAKIRS IN VERMONT, by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NATURE FAKIRS IN VERMONT, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I think I've read about enough
Last Line: In ethan allen's honest land.
Subject(s): Nature; Vermont


I THINK I've read about enough
Of this denatured "Nature" stuff;
I don't desire no city chap,
That never set a woodchuck trap,
To write a piece for me that tells
How woodchucks lay their eggs in wells;
That eels are fond of pusly greens
And chipmunks live on pork and beans.

Such startling facts these fellers find
You'd s'pose that folks was deef and blind;
They'll pick a feather off the fence,
With learned look and joy intense,
And though you absolutely know
It grew on Johnny's cosset crow,
You'll read, ere long, a mess of mush
On how it warmed a hermit thrush.

They'll stop beside the railroad track
And pull a sketchbook big and black,
And sight at once an Ipswich wren,
And bobbin-breasted Greenland hen,
And hear a screw-tailed bobolink,
And sense a flinch and smell a mink,
And copy down a screech owl's note,
And watch a weasel change his coat.

They'll saunter towards the woodlot bars
And cast a glance and—shooting stars,
Oxalis, bloodroot, squirrel cup
And Injun pipe come sprouting up;
Pipsissewa and flannel plant
Are right on hand, like Charley's Aunt;
A stalk of bellwort, gently curved,
Bows low and begs to be "observed."

You see, they sell too many goods
For folks that know these fields and woods;
Old Rowland Robinson for me,
The man who could and couldn't see;
He knew Vermont in every chink
And wrote with truthful pen and ink;
You heard no "Nature" nonsense drop
In Lovel's Camp or Lisha's Shop.

To have a skinny chap come 'round
A-wearing specs that weigh a pound,
And say the cuckoos "put him through"
When you have never heard but two,
And claim the ladyslippers clog
His feet in almost every bog,
Is more than flesh and blood can stand
In Ethan Allen's honest land.





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