44 
SOUTHHRN CULTrVATOR. 
For till- Southern Cultiva'or. 
THE FARMER-MAN — A «EORGI-AC. 
INSCRIBKI) TO “ N OP VIRGINIA. 
Between her Rivers and beside the Sea! 
Hy mother-land 1 What fairer land than ahel 
Tho’ vandal hands have from her bosom torn 
The richest robe the virgin earth hath worn, 
Uncrowned her hills, despoiled each forest dale. 
And left her cheek to blush without a veil; 
Yet wist we well a gentle race shall rise, 
Sons of her soil ! and daughters of her skies t 
Restore each trace of primal beauty flown. 
And lend, perhaps, a lovelier of their own. 
0l such my song— most happy might it be 
As meet in all, oh, Friend ! as that it sings to thee. 
PYTTH I. 
The Farmer-man ! I see him sit 
In his low porch, to muse a bit. 
The while I throw him in a— Fytte. 
What time the Jismines scent the air, 
iLnd drop their blossoms in his hair; 
What time the evening echo tells 
Of trampling herds and tinkling bells; 
And all the echoes of the Ark, 
Salute the planter-patriarch ! 
So, sitting with his collar spread. 
And heels y’levelled with his head ; 
A monarch in his mere content, 
A king, by general consent. 
PTTTB II. 
And framed between his heels he sees 
A picture, which, perchance may ple*««, 
The distant City, and more nigh 
The River’s twinkle, like an eye. 
Obscured at intervals by motes, 
Which quite extract its beam with btaU. 
The purple hills, where swift or slow, 
The cloudland shadows come and go; 
While dun as dormice at their hem 
The little rail-cars follow them 
'VtUs Iww the pat led years have sped 
Wtlk the black, savage and the red. 
The yellow corn-fields, and the brown, 
Where Southern snow hath melted down; 
And borne its all abundant lint 
To drov/n the mills and drain the mint 
The woods, whose autumn glories cheer 
The solemn sunset of the year. 
With oval openings, which en-ring 
Such views as we are picturing. 
And hint how much the traveller sees. 
Who stays at home and studies trees, 
And thanks the telescope, tho’ dim, 
That keeps its smallest eye on him ; 
And nearer home all shape and sheen 
Of Nature’s endless evergreen; 
Through which a winding walk doth glide 
To Orchards, jubilant and wide. 
Restrained within an emerald edge, 
Of fair, tho’ somewhat thorny hedge. 
An arch-way entrance, and o’erhead 
This little legend to be read : 
“ Partake of all the fruit, nor grieve 
For Eden’s morn or Eden s Eve I” 
FYTTE III. 
what of him*? the Farmer man. 
His way of life and being’s plan I 
Why simply (be it so with many) 
That “now’s” as good a time as any; 
Yet he can tell you of a morn. 
Ere yonder valley sang with corn ; 
Or yonder hill top bared its brow. 
Submissive to the si/n and plow. 
And long before yon proud, white spires 
Crushed out the low, red council fires. 
With not a “turn-out” toe, to press 
The dim walks of the wilderness ( 
Of many a season, come and flown, 
With stroke of fortune, and his own ; 
Till waves of varied memory 
Shall leave him stranded as we see; 
With Time’s old foam-marks in the liiea. 
Now starry with the Jessamines 1 
FYTTB IT. 
His politics I might rehe irso 
In limits lesser than my verse; 
Should any fool my State invade. 
Then mention strict “State-aid T' 
With all the clamor that portends 
The most prodigious dividends I 
The cottages with curling smoke, 
fiHgnificant of “colored folk,’* 
The world’s “Ewe”-nanimouspet laatb, 
Begotten of the black sheep, Han. 
The first, without a foe or care, 
To breathe Millenium’s morning air. 
Aid in their midst a lonely mound 
eloquent, without a tound, 
