Analysis of The Farmer's Daughter Cherry
The Farmer quit what he was at,
The bee-hive he was smokin':
He tilted back his old straw hat--
Says he, 'Young man, you're jokin'!
O Lordy! (Lord, forgive the swar,)
Ain't ye a cheeky sinner?
Come, if I give my gal thar,
Where would _you_ find her dinner?
'Now look at _me_; I settl'd down
When I was one and twenty,
Me, and my axe and Mrs. Brown,
And stony land a plenty.
Look up thar! ain't that homestead fine,
And look at them thar cattle:
I tell ye since that early time
I've fit a tidy battle.
'It kinder wrestles down a man
To fight the stuns and mire:
But I sort of clutch'd to thet thar plan
Of David and Goliar.
Want was the mean old Philistine
That strutted round the clearin',
Of pebbles I'd a hansum line,
And flung 'em nothin' fearin'.
'They hit him square, right whar they ought,
Them times I _had_ an arm!
I lick'd the giant and I bought
A hundred acre farm.
My gal was born about them days,
I was mowin' in the medder;
When some one comes along and says--
'The wife's gone thro' the shadder!'
'Times thought it was God's will she went--
Times thought she work'd too slavin'--
And for the young one that was sent,
I took to steady savin'.
Jest cast your eye on that thar hill
The sugar bush just tetches,
And round by Miller Jackson's mill,
All round the farm stretches.
''Ain't got a mind to give that land
To any snip-snap feller
That don't know loam from mud or sand,
Or if corn's blue or yaller.
I've got a mind to keep her yet--
Last Fall her cheese and butter
Took prizes; sakes! I can't forget
Her pretty pride and flutter.
'Why, you be off! her little face
For me's the only summer;
Her gone, 'twould be a queer, old place,
The Lord smile down upon her!
All goes with her, the house and lot--
You'd like to get 'em, very!
I'll give 'em when this maple bears
A bouncin' ripe-red cherry!'
The Farmer fixed his hat and specks
And pursed his lips together,
The maple wav'd above his head,
Each gold and scarlet feather:
The Teacher's Honest heart sank down:
How could his soul be merry?
He knew--though teaching in a town,
No maple bears a cherry.
Soft blew the wind; the great old tree,
Like Saul to David's singing,
Nodded its jewelled crown, as he
Swayed to the harp-strings' ringing;
A something rosy--not a leaf
Stirs up amid the branches;
A miracle _may_ send relief
To lovers fond and anxious!
O rosy is the velvet cheek
Of one 'mid red leaves sitting!
The sunbeams played at hide-and-seek
With the needles in her knitting.
'O Pa!' The Farmer prick'd his ears,
Whence came that voice so merry?
(The Teacher's thoughtful visage clears)
'The maple bears a cherry!'
The Farmer tilted back his hat:
'Well, gal--as I'm a human,
I'll always hold as doctrine that
Thar's nothin' beats a woman!
When crown'd that maple is with snow,
And Christmas bells are merry,
I'll let you have her, Jack--that's so!
Be sure you're good to Cherry!'
Scheme | ABABCCCC BDBDBEXE BCBCBBBB XFGFHCXC IBIBJHJK LCLCMCMC NCNCGCXC XCXCBCBC CODOPKPX QOQORCRC ABABBCXC |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01011111 011111 11011111 111111 1110101 1101010 1111111 1111010 11111101 1111010 10110101 0101010 1111111 0111110 11111101 1101010 11010101 110101 111111111 11001 1101110 11101 1101011 011101 11111111 111111 11010011 010101 11110111 111001 11110101 011101 11111111 1111110 01011111 1111010 11111111 010111 01110101 110110 11011111 1101110 11111111 111111 11011101 1101010 11011101 0101010 11110101 1101010 01110111 0111010 11100101 1111110 11111101 011110 01011101 0111010 01010111 1101010 01010111 1111110 11110001 1101010 11010111 1111010 1011111 1101110 01010101 1101010 01001101 1101010 11010101 1111110 0111101 10100010 11010111 1111110 01010101 0101010 01010111 1111010 1111101 1101010 11110111 0101110 11110111 1111110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 2,776 |
Words | 541 |
Sentences | 34 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 88 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 195 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 48 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 2:50 min read
- 96 Views
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"The Farmer's Daughter Cherry" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 1 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/19932/the-farmer%27s-daughter-cherry>.
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