Father Missouri takes his own. These are the fields he loaned them, Out of hearts' fullness; gratuitously; Here are the banks he built up for his children -- Here are the fields; rich, fertile silt. Father Missouri, in his dotage Whimsical and drunkenly turbulent, Cuts away the banks; steals away the loam; Washes the ground from under wire fences, Leaves fenceposts grotesquely dangling in the air; And with doddering steps approaches the shanties. Father Missouri; far too old to be so evil. Uncle Dan, seeing his garden lopped away, Seeing his manured earth topple slowly in the stream, Seeing his cows knee-deep in yellow water, His pig-sties flooded, his flower beds drowned, Seeing his white leghorns swept down the stream -- Curses Father Missouri, impotently shakes His fist at the forecloser, the treacherous skinflint; Who takes what was loaned so very long ago, And leaves puddles in his parlor, and useless lakes In his fine pasture land. Sees years of work turned to nothing -- Curses, and shouts in his hoarse old voice, "Ain't got no right to act dat way at all" And the old river rolls on, slowly to the gulf. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SNOW-FLAKES by MARY ELIZABETH MAPES DODGE THE FOUNDERS OF OHIO by WILLIAM HENRY VENABLE THE WILD DUCK'S NEST by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES: NEWS OF WAR by AESCHYLUS TO THE NIGHTINGALE by PHILIP AYRES DEMON by ALEXANDER (ALEKSANDR) ALEXANDROVICH BLOK |