A COUNTRY life is sweet! In moderate cold and heat, To walk in the air, how pleasant and fair! In every field of wheat, The fairest of flowers adorning the bowers, And every meadow's brow; To that I say, no courtier may Compare with they who clothe in gray, And follow the useful plough. They rise with the morning lark, And labour till almost dark, Then folding their sheep, they hasten to sleep; While every pleasant park Next morning is ringing with birds that are singing On each green, tender bough. With what content and merriment Their days are spent, whose minds are bent To follow the useful plough! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE WHEEL OF BEING I by HAYDEN CARRUTH SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: ALONZO CHURCHILL by EDGAR LEE MASTERS UNDER A PATCHED SAIL by MARIANNE MOORE THE LEAVES FIRST by CARL PHILLIPS THEME IN YELLOW by CARL SANDBURG TO A LADY WHO HAD OFFERED HIM A WREATH OF LAUREL by GEORGE SANTAYANA |