Short Fiction · Chapter
The Poet and the Peasant explained
A poet who has lived close to nature writes a pastoral poem that an editor rejects as 'too artificial.' In retaliation, a group of friends conspire to have Conant, a city-dwelling writer, submit a fabricated nature poem under his own name.
What happens
A poet who has lived close to nature writes a pastoral poem that an editor rejects as 'too artificial.' In retaliation, a group of friends conspire to have Conant, a city-dwelling writer, submit a fabricated nature poem under his own name. Meanwhile, a country bumpkin named Haylocks arrives in New York City from Ulster County, carrying a valise with $950 from his grandmother's farm. Despite his genuine rustic appearance—complete with a wisp of hay in his hair—everyone he encounters, from a steerer to a bartender to a newsboy, dismisses him as a fake or a con artist in disguise. After being repeatedly rebuffed, Haylocks buys fashionable city clothes and transforms into a suave boulevardier, only to be immediately targeted by a gang of thieves who rob him. The story concludes with Conant receiving payment for his poem, and the narrator offers two conflicting morals: 'Stay on the Farm' or 'Don't Write Poetry.'
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Appearance vs. Reality
The story revolves around mistaken identity: the genuine countryman is seen as a fake, while the city poet's artificial poem is accepted as authentic. Appearances deceive both the editor and the city dwellers.
Humor and Irony
The central irony is that the editor rejects a real nature poem as 'too artificial' while accepting a city-dweller's fake pastoral. The repeated rejection of the genuine hayseed by con artists and thieves adds comedic layers.
Social Class and Wealth
Haylocks's $950 farm inheritance marks him as a target for urban swindlers, and his transformation into a fashionable city dweller leads directly to his robbery, highlighting the vulnerability of rural wealth in the city.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator recounts the story of the poet and the peasant, and is part of the group that conspires to trick the editor.
- Mrs. Conant
Conant is a well-arrived writer of fiction who writes the fabricated poem 'The Doe and the Brook' to fool the editor.
- Bunco Harry
A con artist with dyed mustache and shiny eyes who criticizes Haylocks's exaggerated rustic appearance and later dismisses his money as fake.
- Jabez Bulltongue
The alias given to the robbed countryman when he reports the theft to the police; he is from Locust Valley farm, Ulster County.
Key passages
“When I read the first line of 'The Doe and the Brook,' I knew it to be the work of one whose life has been heart to heart with Nature. The finished art of the line did not blind me to that fact. To use a somewhat homely comparison, it was as if a wild, free child of the woods and fields were to don the garb of fashion and walk down Broadway. Beneath the apparel the man would show.”
The editor praises the poem as the work of someone deeply connected to nature, comparing it to a rustic person dressed in fashionable clothes—the true character remains visible beneath the surface.
This quote encapsulates the story's central irony: the editor praises the artificial poem for its supposed naturalness, while the genuinely rustic Haylocks is dismissed as a fake.
“The morals of this story have somehow gotten mixed. You can take your choice of 'Stay on the Farm' or 'Don't Write Poetry.'”
The story's lessons are unclear; you can either conclude that one should remain in the countryside or that one should avoid writing poetry altogether.
The narrator's wry conclusion underscores the story's satirical tone, leaving the reader to ponder the absurdity of both the poet's and the peasant's experiences.