His least bidding, and lo, he’s away
The eighth line shows us that Cynddylan is feeling very powerful in his tractor:
Riding to work now as a great man should,
In the next few lines, the noise of the tractor breaks the silence and displaces the animals:
He is the knight at arms breaking the fields’
Mirror of silence, emptying the woods
Of foxes and squirrels and bright jays.
The next two lines tell us that it is daytime and the sun lights all the hedges:
The sun comes over the tall trees
Kindling all the hedges, but not for him
The last two lines show that the birds cannot do anything as Cynddylan passes proudly up his field:
And all the birds are singing, bills wide in vain,
As Cynddylan passes proudly up the lane.
‘Soil’ is about a farmer and his symbiotic relationship with the soil. The first two lines are tranquil and give a sense of night time:
A field with tall hedges
Moon in the branches and one star
The fourth and fifth lines talk about the farmer hand cutting the roots:
Where he works slowly astride the rows
Of red mangolds and green Swedes
The last line of the first stanza suggests that the unnamed farmer has been cutting the roots over and over again, as if he was a machine:
Plying mechanically his cold blade.
The third line of the second stanza tells us that the farmer goes further and further without thinking about time:
Is boundless, and he never looks up;
The next two lines show that as he looks down his feet are sunk in the soil, and the soil means so much to him.
His gaze is deep in the dark soil,
As are his feet. The soul is all;
The sixth line implies that the farmer is at one with the soil. He loves it and his hands caress it.
His hands fondle it, and his bones
The seventh line suggests that he has evolved from the soil. These are Biblical echoes from Genesis:
Are formed out of it with the swedes.
The next few lines tell us that if sometimes he cuts himself in error, the drops of blood return to his home which is the soil.
And if sometimes the knife errs,
Burying itself in his shocked flesh,
Then out of the wound the blood seeps home
To the warm soil from which it came.
There are a number of differences between both these poems. In the first poem, Cynddylan is part of the machine. He ploughs his field in daylight. Whereas in the second poem, the unnamed farmer is at one with the soil. He is symbiotically related to the soil. He cuts the roots manually in the night.
Cynddylan displaces the animals with the noise of his tractor whilst in the other poem the farmer works with his animals. Cynddylan is like a warrior wanting to destroy everything in front of him. On the other hand, the other farmer is a nurturer. He gives his blood to the soil.
Cynddylan does his job quickly and easily. He is always looking for change and improvement. However, the anonymous farmer does his job slowly and enjoyably. He is content with what he has.
