Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, VERMONT FARMING TOOLS, by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

VERMONT FARMING TOOLS, by                     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.





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