# Four Acre Farm explained — Poetry > Chapter companion for Poetry by James McIntyre. ## What happens A narrative poem describing the quiet, industrious life of an unmarried woman named Ruth who owns and works a small four-acre farm. The poem emphasizes her self-sufficiency, her skill in raising vegetables, fruits, livestock, and poultry, and her peaceful, uneventful existence. ## Themes in this chapter ### Agriculture and Rural Economy The poem details Ruth's farming activities, including growing vegetables and fruits, keeping a cow, sow, geese, sheep, and chickens, and producing butter and wool. ### Moral Lessons and Domestic Virtue Ruth's industrious, contented, and virtuous life is presented as an ideal of domestic and moral simplicity. ## Character check-ins ### Ruth The maiden lady who owns and works the four-acre farm, living a self-sufficient and peaceful life. ## Key lines > This is a tale, but it is truth, Of maiden lady named Ruth, She owned a small four acre farm, Which possessed some rural charm. This story is true and tells of an unmarried woman named Ruth who owned a small four-acre farm that had a pleasant rural appeal. _Introduces the protagonist and setting._ > Good vegetables and fine roots She growed and choicest kind of fruits. And a first-class good milch cow She kept, and a fine breeding sow, Her butter high price did command, Cow fed on best of pasture land. She grew excellent vegetables, roots, and fruits, kept a high-quality dairy cow and a breeding sow, and her butter sold for a high price because the cow grazed on rich pasture. _Describes Ruth's successful farming and livestock management._ > And thus her uneventful life Doth pass without jar or strife, ’Tis seldom she e’re feels alarm, But quietly tills her little farm. Her life is peaceful and without conflict, and she rarely experiences worry as she calmly works her small farm. _Highlights the tranquility and contentment of Ruth's rural existence._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_12_se/chapters/four-acre-farm - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_12_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_12_se/chapters