C6 L9 I Will Go With My Father A-ploughing

Know the poet:

Joseph John Campbell, জোসেফ জন ক্যাম্পবেল) (1879-1944) ছিলেন একজন বিখ্যাত আইরিশ কবি এবং গীতিকার। তিনি একটি আইরিশ পরিবারে বেলফাস্টে জন্মগ্রহণ করেন। তার সাহিত্যিক জীবন শুরু হয় গানের মাধ্যমে। ১৯০৫ সালে তিনি লন্ডনে চলে যান। তার বিখ্যাত কবিতাগুলোর মধ্যে রয়েছে At Harvest, On Waking, The Blind Man at the Fair, The Old Woman ইত্যাদি।

The Poem in a Nutshell

“I Will Go With My Father A-ploughing” by Joseph Campbell is a charming and evocative poem that celebrates the bond between a father and his son through the lens of rural farming life. The poem is divided into stanzas, each highlighting a different stage of farming: ploughing, sowing, and reaping. Through these activities, the poem paints a vivid picture of the natural world and the timeless traditions of agriculture.

In the first stanza, the son expresses his eagerness to join his father in ploughing the fields by the sea, accompanied by various birds. The second stanza depicts the son singing to the horses and the father singing a plough-song, emphasizing the harmony between man and nature. The third stanza focuses on sowing seeds in the red fields, where the father’s wisdom and the beauty of the sowing process are highlighted. Finally, the fourth stanza describes the reaping of the harvest in the brown fields, with the son and father enjoying the fruits of their labor.

The poem is rich in imagery, bringing to life the rural landscape and the simple joys of farming. The use of the ‘a-‘ prefix before verbs (a-ploughing, a-sowing, a-reaping) adds a rhythmic and nostalgic quality, emphasizing the continuity and duration of these activities. Overall, the poem celebrates the values of hard work, tradition, and the deep connection between humans and the natural world.