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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
VERMONT FARMING TOOLS, by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY Poet's Biography First Line: The leakiest roof in all vermont Last Line: As dry as our insides. Subject(s): Farm Life; Machinery & Machinists; Mowing & Mowers; Tools; Vermont; Agriculture; Farmers; Lawn Mowers | |||
THE leakiest roof in all Vermont Is what is called the sky, And he who lets his tools "stand out" Will soon have tools to buy: Besides, he'll get the stoney stare From every motoring eye. I never fully understood This housing things outdoors; A wagon pole will warp a foot Each time it up and pours, And hail will dent the reddest paint On any make of mowers. A right good reaper sticking up Through drabbly drifts of snow, Or standing 'round behind the barn, There where the burdocks grow, Will make no summer boarders come Nor debt-collectors go. I'm told by them that used to own The Farm Machinery Trust, There isn't any rust on earth Like this "exposure" rust; 'Twill eat a tedder right in two And turn a plow to dust. The clutch inside a horserake hub Abhors a winter fog; The cutterbar that has no home Is pretty apt to clog; The man who won't unload his "bobs" Will some day want a log. A stoneboat, even, won't improve "Laid up" on some old ledge; No apple tree can give a scythe A carborundum edge; A beetle doesn't like the woods And neither does a wedge. Depreciation is a thing We folks are slow to learn, Though stopping it is such a short And easy way to earn; The wheel that's kept in good repair Jest finds it fun to turn. I'm not a-scolding—not a bit, But now that fashion chides All forms of wetness, let us save Our tools as well as hides, And keep our farming implements As dry as our insides. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LAST MOWING by ROBERT FROST AN OLD FIELD MOWED FOR APPEARANCES' SAKE by WILLIAM MEREDITH THE TUFT OF FLOWERS by ROBERT FROST LYING IN THE GRASS by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE A VERMONT 'DONATION' by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY |
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