Joseph Warren Beach. Succession. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

Succession

By Joseph Warren Beach


From “On the Land” IT is not as if I stood alone.
When I stop to rest the horses
And take a look at the sky,
It is not me
So much as my father	5
Stopping in the same furrow:
For I have his shoulders
And his eyes.

And when I stumped that field,
I felt as if I were his father,	10
Who cleared the first land
And built the house.
My father built on the ell,
But he slept himself
In his father’s bed	15
In the old house;
And that’s where I sleep.

I hope my son will stick to the land.
I like to watch him plough
Upon that hillside,	20
And burn brush
Along the road.
It is as much me
As it is himself,
And as much my father	25
As either of us.