Poetry · Chapter
Sheep explained
This chapter extols the practical and economic virtues of sheep farming, emphasizing the dual harvest of lamb and wool, and the industrious role of the farmer's wife in spinning, weaving, and managing household duties.
What happens
This chapter extols the practical and economic virtues of sheep farming, emphasizing the dual harvest of lamb and wool, and the industrious role of the farmer's wife in spinning, weaving, and managing household duties. It portrays her as a hardworking, uncomplaining figure whose labor contributes to family prosperity and moral strength.
Themes in this chapter
Agriculture and Rural Economy
The chapter highlights the economic benefits of sheep farming, including the sale of lamb and wool, and the role of home production in building wealth.
Moral Lessons and Domestic Virtue
The farmer's wife is portrayed as a paragon of virtue, working tirelessly without complaint and raising a large family, embodying domestic ideals of the era.
Characters to notice
- James McIntyre
The author and narrator, reflecting on the benefits of sheep farming and the virtues of the farmer's wife.
Key passages
“This advantage hath the sheep, Two crops each yoar from them you reap; You get big price for tender lamb, And crop of wool from shearing dam.”
Sheep provide two valuable harvests each year: the sale of tender lamb and the wool shorn from the mother sheep.
Highlights the dual economic benefit of sheep farming.
“Industrious wife can spin the yarn, And knit the socks, or old ones darn; Or weave it up in her own loom, And thrift to wealth it soon will bloom.”
A hardworking wife can turn wool into yarn, knit or mend socks, or weave cloth on her loom, and through such thriftiness, the family's wealth will grow.
Emphasizes the wife's role in converting raw wool into finished goods for household use or sale.
“But very oft the farmer’s wife Has to work hard through all her life; If husband has to drive the ploughs, The wife perhaps must milk the cows.”
The farmer's wife often works hard her entire life, taking on tasks like milking cows while her husband plows the fields.
Illustrates the shared but gendered division of farm labor.
“And she too may churn the butter, And no grumble she doth utter; Though she doth work as hard as slave, All trials she doth nobly brave.”
She also churns butter without complaint, working as hard as a slave and bravely enduring all hardships.
Praises the wife's stoicism and resilience in the face of demanding labor.
“Oft times large family she doth raise, Her virtues they have cause to praise; A guardian angel o’er her young, When they were feeble round her clung.”
She often raises a large family, and her children have reason to praise her virtues; she is like a guardian angel to her young, who clung to her when they were weak.
Portrays the wife as a nurturing and protective mother, central to family life.