A poem worth reading

In the 19th century, a poet named John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a beautiful poem titled Maud Muller. It's about a woman (Muller) and a man who meet once, briefly, but never forget that meeting.

Here's the poem's first two lines:

Maud Muller, on a summer's day,
Raked the meadow sweet with hay.

The poem begins with Maud in a meadow on a warm, sunlit day, raking hay. How do I know the day is sunny and warm? I used my imagination, which this poem invites. If the weather were not warm and sunny, I doubt that Maud would be doing any raking. It's not easy to rake wet hay.

It's interesting that instead of writing that Maud "Raked the meadow full of hay," Whittier wrote "sweet with hay." Whittier writes not for the few who gain pleasure from reading esoteric, difficult to decipher poems, but for the many who enjoy reading poems within whose content lies a deceptively powerful simplicity.

Here are the poem's third and fourth lines:

Beneath her torn hat glowed the wealth
Of simple beauty and rustic health.

It's obvious that Maud was not a woman of financial wealth. Her wealth was of another kind, one that cannot be bought in a store.

Whittier's skill with rhyme enhances the poem's effect, creating an aura about it that would have been much more difficult to effect if the words were written in a non-poetic form.

At this time in American history, when corporate greed and government mismanagement have dampened many people's spirits, it's a good time to be thankful for the works of men like Whittier, who've created works of beauty whose glow no cloud can lessen.