Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-06-30
The Man With the Hoe.

upon a short poem written after seeing
Millet's world-famous painting, THE
Man With the Hoe" Millet created
the immortal painting THE Angelus, -
and this later work is of much the
same type. 1t represents peasant
leaning upon his hoe. The field is bare
and the sky dull. there being nothing
/ in the picture to detract from the CEN
| trail figure, the stolid half-brute lean
| ing upon the rude implement 1t is
doubtless great work of art-the
critics so pronounce it, and far be it
from us to dispute their opinion,-but
| it is not a pleasant picture to look
upon. Neither is the poem by Mark
ham. which has been so widely printed
a pleasant poem to read. Nevertheless
it faithfully embodies the detail and
the spirit of the painting. and we give
it below in full:
Bowed by the weight of centuries he
leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world
Who made him dead to rapture and de-
Spair.
A thing than grieves not and that never
hopes,
Stolid and stunned. a brother to the OK.
Who loosened and let down this brutal
jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back
this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within
this brain?
Is this the Thing the Lord God made and
To have dominion over sea and land;
To trace the stars and search the
heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?
Is this the Dream He dreamed who
Ana piIiared the blue armament with
light?
Down all the stretch of He'll to its last
There is no shape more terrible than
More tongued with censure Of the worlds
blind greed
More filed with signs and portents FOR
More fraught with menace to the uni
verse.
What CULTS between him and the SER
aphim,
Slave Of the wheel of labor. what 70 him
Are Plato ana the swing Of Pleiades?
" lAttL CT tiiN 4St'c ASN'N-'N
Of song.
The rift Of dawn, the reddening Of the
rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering
ages look;
Times tragedy is in that aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity be
Plundered. profaned and disinherited,
cries protest to the Judges Of the World,
4 protest that is also prophecy.
- --..- t,.l- %, al r,,Iorr in oil lands
Is this the handiwork YOU give to God.
This monstrous thing distorted and soul
quenched?
How will you ever Stralghten up TINS
Touch it again with immortality;
Give back the upward looking and the
light;
Rebuild in it the music and the dream:
Make right the immcmorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?
q masters. lords and rulers in all lands
How will the Future reckon with this
Man?
How answer his brute questions in that
When whirlwinds Of rebellion shake the
world?
How will it be with kingdoms and with
With those who shaped him to the thing
When this dumb Terror shall reply to
God
After the silence OF the centuries
What American can understand or
appreciate such a painting or such
poemo The picture it presents may be
true to the life of the French peas
antry. or the peasantry Of other parts
of Europe; but, thank God, it is not
true. and never was true, and never
will be true, of American life. Edwin
Markham's lease of fame will be
short one if it depends upon such
production as this. Poetry that lives
must live in the hearts of the people,
and it must have other elements than
a combination of words that presents a
vivid picture. The spirit of this poem,
and of the painting upon which it IS
based is utterly vicious, it is insulting
TO honorable labor, and it can nave
only a tendency to promote contempt
for work. and to cultivate dissatisfac-
ton. unrest and despair, where the
poetry and the painting which are
worthy of long life would stimulate
hope. happiness and courage. 1t is
woeful wall. pessimistic and dyspeptic
in the extreme.
The man with the hoe, as this coun-
try knows him, is mot a being vita
empty face, devoid Of emotion, "a
brother to the OK with brutal jaw
that hangs down, and brow that is
slanted back. He is a king and the
hoe is his scepter. The field is his
kingdom and he reigns over willing
subjects. The American who Yields
hoe. finds better use for it than as a
support to lean upon while the weeds
are growing and the corn needs at
tention. He is an active, intelligent
citizen, and while he works in the fis
he is planning for the future of.o., 5
children who are away at schosl, or
wondering what solution is best for the
national problems of the day. The
man with the hoe feeds the world; ms
home is the happiest in creation, ana
he gets more satisfaction from his