FARM BALLADS

By Will Carleton



PREFACE.

These poems have been written under various, and, in some cases,
difficult, conditions: in the open air, "with team afield;" in the
student's den, with the ghosts of unfinished lessons hovering gloomily
about; amid the rush and roar of railroad travel, which trains of thought
are not prone to follow; and in the editor's sanctum, where the dainty
feet of the Muses do not often deign to tread.

Crude and unfinished as they are, the author has yet had the assurance to
publish them, from time to time, in different periodicals, in which, it is
but just to admit, they have been met by the people with unexpected favor.
While his judgment has often failed to endorse the kind words spoken for
them, he has naturally not felt it in his heart to file any remonstrances.

He has been asked, by friends in all parts of the country, to put his
poems into a more durable form than they have hitherto possessed; and it
is in accordance with these requests that he now presents "Farm Ballads"
to the public.

Of course he does not expect to escape, what he needs so greatly, the
discipline of severe criticism; for he is aware that he has often wandered
out of the beaten track, and has many times been too regardless of the
established rules of rhythm, in his (oftentimes vain) search for the