Intro
New York vs. Farm Life
Imagine yourself living in New York City in 1900. You are surrounded by friends and family at endless events and activities.
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Then, one day, you meet someone. You marry and move out west where there is not much of anything to do besides farming.
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Most likely, you would miss your family. What is something else that you may missYou may miss your favorite pastime, such as going to the theater. ?
Look at the photographs of the Nebraska Homestead Experience.
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Poem
Read the poem below called “Prairie Spring” that appears in the opening of Willa Cather’s novel O Pioneers!
Evening and the flat land,
Rich and sombre and always silent;
The miles of fresh-plowed soil,
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness;
The growing wheat, the growing weeds,
The toiling horses, the tired men;
The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
The eternal, unresponsive sky.
Against all this, Youth,
Flaming like the wild roses,
Singing like the larks over the plowed fields,
Flashing like a star out of the twilight;
Youth with its insupportable sweetness,
Its fierce necessity,
Its sharp desire,
Singing and singing,
Out of the lips of silence,
Out of the earthy dusk.
Analysis
The poem describes the landscape of the flat prairie land of Nebraska, which requires a labor-intensive touch. This is shown by the highlighted portions below.
Evening and the flat land,
Rich and sombre and always silent;
The miles of fresh-plowed soil,
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness;
The growing wheat, the growing weeds,
The toiling horses, the tired men;
The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
The eternal, unresponsive sky.
Against all this, Youth,
Flaming like the wild roses,
Singing like the larks over the plowed fields,
Flashing like a star out of the twilight;
Youth with its insupportable sweetness,
Its fierce necessity,
Its sharp desire,
Singing and singing,
Out of the lips of silence,
Out of the earthy dusk.
What other evidence in the poem suggests that living on the prairie land would be hard? See the highlighted sections.
Evening and the flat land,
Rich and sombre and always silent;
The miles of fresh-plowed soil,
Heavy and black, full of strength and harshness;
The growing wheat, the growing weeds,
The toiling horses, the tired men;
The long empty roads,
Sullen fires of sunset, fading,
The eternal, unresponsive sky.
Against all this, Youth,
You will read a short story in your lesson that deals with the struggle of losing a favorite pastime in exchange for pioneer life.