Prairie Folks

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Title:     Prairie Folks
Author: Hamlin Garland [More Titles by Garland]

PIONEERS

They rise to mastery of wind and snow;
They go like soldiers grimly into strife,
To colonize the plain; they plough and sow,
And fertilize the sod with their own life
As did the Indian and the buffalo.

SETTLERS

Above them soars a dazzling sky,
In winter blue and clear as steel,
In summer like an arctic sea
Wherein vast icebergs drift and reel
And melt like sudden sorcery.

Beneath them plains stretch far and fair,
Rich with sunlight and with rain;
Vast harvests ripen with their care
And fill with overplus of grain
Their square, great bins.

Yet still they strive! I see them rise
At dawn-light, going forth to toil:
The same salt sweat has filled my eyes,
My feet have trod the self-same soil
Behind the snarling plough.

[The end]
Hamlin Garland's poem: Prairie Folks

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