The Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society (excerpt) September 30, 1859
Author Fred Kaplan takes a different perspective on what appears to be a simple speech for Wisconsin's agricultural farmers. He states in Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer that by rearranging the speech typographically (below), the "paragraph reveals a free-verse poem of sophisticated triadic phrases, alliteration and assonance, and a delayed climactic phrase that remembers the first sentence, providing both recognition and unity."
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Original ExcerptEvery blade of grass is a study; and to produce two, where there was but one, is both a profit and a pleasure. And not grass alone; but soils, seeds, and seasons -- hedges, ditches, and fences, draining, droughts, and irrigation -- plowing, hoeing, and harrowing -- reaping, mowing, and threshing -- saving crops, pests of crops, diseases of crops, and what will prevent or cure them -- implements, utensils, and machines, their relative merits, and [how] to improve them -- hogs, horses, and cattle -- sheep, goats, and poultry -- trees, shrubs, fruits, plants, and flowers -- the thousand things of which these are specimens -- each a world of study within itself.
Excerpted Source: Abraham Lincoln Online Quote from final paragraph:"Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us; and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away."
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"Found Poetry"Every blade of grass is a study;
And to produce two, Where there was but one, Is both a profit and a pleasure. And not grass alone; But soils, seeds, and seasons -- Hedges, ditches, and fences, Draining, droughts, and irrigation -- Plowing, hoeing, and harrowing -- Reaping, mowing, and threshing -- Saving crops, pests of crops, diseases of crops, And what will prevent or cure them -- Implements, utensils, and machines, Their relative merits, And [how] to improve them -- Hogs, horses, and cattle -- Sheep, goats, and poultry -- Trees, shrubs, fruits, plants, and flowers -- The thousand things of which these are specimens -- Each a world of study within itself. Source: Kaplan, Fred. Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer. New York: HarperCollins, 2008. (302-303). |