A Ballad of the Corn
By S. H. M. Byers
Oh, the undulating prairies,
And the fields of yellow corn,
Like a million soldiers waiting for the fray.
Oh, the rustling of the corn leaves
Like a distant fairy’s horn
And the notes the fairy bugles seem to play.
“We have risen from the bosom
Of the beauteous mother earth,
Where the farmer plowed his furrow straight and long.
There was gladness and rejoicing
When the summer gave us birth,
In the tumult and the dancing and the song.
“When the sumach turns to scarlet,
And the vines along the lane
Are garmented in autumn’s golden wine—
Then the land shall smile for plenty,
And the toiler for his pain,
When the soldiers of our army stand in line.
“With our shining blades before us,
And our banners flaming far,
Want and hunger shall be slain forevermore.
And the cornfield’s lord of plenty
In his golden-covered car
Then shall stop at every happy toiler’s door.”
Oh, the sunshine and the beauty
On the fields of ripened corn,
And the wigwams and the corn-rows where they stand.
In the lanes I hear the music
Of the faintly blowing horn
And the blessed Indian summer’s on the land.