Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-04-16
THE MOWER IN OHIO.
JUNE, 0rDCCcLxIv.


James Piatt's "Western Windows and
Other Poems" just about to be published
1yyiiI sfIV r1T1I1i3sbed with fQII-page Illus
trafion, in H0rpeT'S Weekly August 1854,
and refers to the time when our !" Hundred
DAYS Men, were absent In Virginia Ihe
AtIuntte Monthly for May, 1855, says Of this
poem: isThe Mower in Ohio IS so simple
and touching, so full Of home-lIilze, Ike, genuine
feeling, that we have little hesita-
ton ia calling it on e Of the few good poems
which the war has yet suggested. ]
The bees in the clover are making honey,
and am making my hay;
The air IS fresh, seem to draw young
mans breath to-day.
The bees and I are alone in the grass the
air is so very still;
I hear the dam, 50 loud, that shines beyond
Z the sullen mill.
Yes. the air is so still that hear almost the
sounds can not nes.r near, :, ,,,,,+,, in, =,
my empty ear;
The chime Of striking seythes, the fall Of
the heavy svaths they sweep
They ring about me, resting when waver
SO still am not sure if a cloud, low down,
unseen there be, r7a
Or if something brings a rumOr home of the
cannon so far frOm mes +s
Far away in Virginia. where Joseph and
WIN ten them what meant when first I
had my mowers go!
Joseph he is my eldest one, the only boy OF
Whose shadow can darlken my door again,
and tighten my heart for me-
Joseph he is my eIdest-hOw his seythe was
striking ahead!
William was better at shorter heats, but } o..
in the lOng-run led.
william he was my youngest; john, be-
tween them, I somehow see,
When my eyes are shut, with little board
at his head in Tennessee.
But William came home one morning early,
from Gettysburg, last July,
THE moving was over already, although
the only mower was ,
William. my captain, came home for good
to his mother; and IN be bound
We were proud and cried to see the nag that
wrapt his coffin around;
For a company from the town came up ten
miles with music and gun:
It seem'd his country claimed him then-as
well as his mOther-her son.
But Joseph is yonder with Grant to-day, a
thousand miles or near,
And only the bees are abroad at werk with
me in the clover here.
Was it murmur of thunder I heard that
humm'd again in the air
Yet, may be, the cannons are sounding now
their Onward to Richmond there.
But under the beech by the orchard, at noon
sat an hour it would seem
It may be slept minute, too, or wayer'd
into a dream.
For saw my boys, across the field, by the
flashes as they went,
Tramping a steady tramp as OF old, with the
strength in their arms unspent;
Tramping a steady tramp, they moved like
soldiers that march to the beat
/ OF music that seems, a part of themselves
to rise and fall with their feet;
/ Tramping a steady tramp, they came will
flashes of silver that shCne.
Every step, from their scythes that rang a
if they needed the stone
| CThe field is wide and heavy with grass
and, coming toward me they beam'd
With a shine of light in their faces at once
and-surely must have dream'd!
For sat alone in the cIover-fieId, the bee
were working ahead,
There were three in my ViSiOn-rememb Der
old man: and what if Joseph were dead
But I hope that he and Grant (tlle flag abov,
them both to bOOt
] VIII go into Richmond together, no matte
which is ahead or afOot!
Meantime alone at the moving here-an OLE
man somewhat gray
must stay at home as long as can, making
myself the hay.
| And so another FOund-the quail in tn
orchard whistles blithe-
But first III drink at the spring below, an'
whet again my scythe.