Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FARM BOY, by ALEXANDERA MERTES


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FARM BOY, by                    
First Line: Have you seen him
Last Line: Solitary dawns, and clearing skies.
Subject(s): Youth


Have you seen him
When he comes to town,
Farm boy, sturdy, slow, and brown?
He's come to spend the day.
Out their way
It's rained so much, you know,
Too wet to plow, or disk, or sow.

He's young, thirteen, perhaps.
He looks older.
His eyes are deep and clean, but sad.
Why should eyes be so somber
In so young a lad?

His hair, a chestnut thatch at home,
Is flattened down,
Slicked with water,
And a vigorous comb.
His skin is clear, cool,
His throat a hollowed pool
Where sun has lain.

His hands, if you chance to see them
Outside his trouser pockets,
Are large, bony, one knuckle red and raw
Where he barked it on the manger,
Or maybe 'twas on the saw,
When he whiled the time away in the woodshed,
On another rainy day.

O young farmer, earth-bred, shy,
City reared, I envy your heritage,
Your calm unhurried look.
In your striding walk
I see a running brook,
And in those steady eyes,
Solitary dawns, and clearing skies.





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