Illinois Farmer
Illinois Farmer - context Summary
Composed for a Burial
Written for a burial, the poem asks that an Illinois farmer be buried with respect. It frames his life through repeated images of work in cornfields and the wind that accompanied him through seasons. The speaker comforts by tying the man’s rest to the landscape: the same wind and corn that defined his labor will continue over his grave, suggesting continuity between life, place, and memory.
Read Complete AnalysesBURY this old Illinois farmer with respect. He slept the Illinois nights of his life after days of work in Illinois cornfields. Now he goes on a long sleep. The wind he listened to in the cornsilk and the tassels, the wind that combed his red beard zero mornings when the snow lay white on the yellow ears in the bushel basket at the corncrib, The same wind will now blow over the place here where his hands must dream of Illinois corn.
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