Frederik Vermehren, Danish
There Are Two Exciting New Innovations on This Year’s Broadcast of the International Harvesting Tournament: “Super Sow-Mo” and “Instant Reap-Play,” 1859
Oil on canvas
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Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here, here (Google translated, if necessary), and here, perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated Danish Wikipedia page has more).
/// Cross the newly plowed field strides A Sower.
This is winter wheat (grows a bit slower).
He will harvest the crop
with a sickle to chop
it down. (No one’s invented the mower.)
/// As he scatters the seed at his feet,
the plowed furrows are not very neat.
And that’s why this crop grows
in odd haphazard rows.
His dull sickle creates shredded wheat.
/// Sun and water each keep plants alive,
and the soil’s richness helps them to thrive.
Dog and horses ensure
there is always manure,
but his clean new boots may not survive.
/// He has worked this land nearly since birth;
farming made him a Man of the Earth.
Endless back-breaking toil
yields a crop from the soil,
but in kroner he hasn’t much worth.
/// One need not have an IQ profound
to drop handsful of seeds on the ground.
As across fields he’s hiking,
he daydreams he’s a Viking
(who ran into a large rock and drowned).
/// Many times on that rock he would trip.
Tried to pick it up— can’t get a grip.
From a glacier it came;
in a way it’s the same
as an iceberg. That’s only the tip!