Poetry · Chapter
The Joys of Prairie Farmers explained
A poem contrasting the struggles of Ontario farmers clearing wooded land with the ease of prairie farming in the Northwest, celebrating the rapid transformation of wilderness into farmland and cities, while acknowledging Ontario's skill in
What happens
A poem contrasting the struggles of Ontario farmers clearing wooded land with the ease of prairie farming in the Northwest, celebrating the rapid transformation of wilderness into farmland and cities, while acknowledging Ontario's skill in inventing agricultural implements.
Themes in this chapter
Pioneer and Settler Struggles
The poem contrasts the heavy labor of Ontario settlers clearing woods with the easier initial farming on the prairies, yet both involve the pioneer experience of transforming wilderness into farmland.
Progress and Technology
Celebrates the rapid transformation of the prairie landscape through agriculture and the invention of agricultural implements by Ontario, suggesting technological progress as a key to settlement.
Key passages
“We let Ontario farmers sing About the joys the woods do bring, But we in regions of Northwest Do think prairie farms the best”
We allow Ontario farmers to praise the pleasures of woodland life, but we who live in the Northwest believe prairie farming is superior.
Sets up the central contrast between Ontario's wooded farms and the open prairies.
“For those poor men who swing the axe On their strength ’tis a heavy tax, For several years they naught can grow While from the first we plow and sow”
For those unfortunate men who chop trees, it is a great drain on their energy, and they cannot grow crops for years, whereas we can plow and sow immediately.
Highlights the physical toll and delay in farming for Ontario settlers versus the immediate productivity of prairie farmers.
“And where wild Buffalo now doth feed There very soon they’ll sow the seed, Where Indian wigwams now do stand Will be the site of cities grand”
Where buffalo now graze, soon seeds will be planted; where Indigenous lodges now stand, great cities will arise.
Reflects the displacement of bison and Indigenous peoples by agricultural settlement and urbanization.
“So quick as if by magic wand They will arise o’er the whole land, But this one fact we won’t deny Ontario she can supply, For so skilfully she doth invent Each agricultural implement.”
As if by magic, these cities will spring up across the land, but we admit that Ontario skillfully invents all the farming tools we use.
Acknowledges Ontario's role in providing the technological means for prairie settlement.