Over the meadow bounds the skittish colt, 
And dashes in swift course the bord ring wave, 
Or scours the hollow of the lofty mount, 
And plashes through the stony stream unshod.
Fierce shines his comely front, his waving mane 
Wantons in wind, his ears prick quavering up.
From his round jetty head his ample eye 
Out standeth full; from his wide nostril darts 
The breath as if on flame; his curving neck
Stands lofty up, such as full forward bears 
The bird, whose voice bids lions stand in awe, 
Whose watchful note calls up the loit'ring morn.
Round-circling plump does swell his breast abroad, 
With courage fraught undaunted; high arise 
His even shoulders, ridging slender up.
And now his back the saddle well becomes.
Along his loins does double run the chine;
Thick flanks truss up his belly tight and smooth;
His buttocks in good liking spread themselves;
He cocks his tail rough-frisling full of hair;
The copious locks o’erflow his lusty neck, 
Down his right shoulder floating to and fro.
Bold does he turn his nimble shank around
Tied firm within a knee shaped round and long.
Fierce he bears forward with his look aloft, 
And prances stately neighing all the way.
His deep horn hollow hoof treads thund'ring down;
Resembling so the stamping dance and noise 
Of brazen cymbals loud, wherewith her priests 
Did celebrate the rites of Cybele.

George Farewell (fl. 1733) -  "The Country Man" from The New Oxford Book of Eighteenth-Century Verse


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#209 – Being a Jew in 1900, Being a Jew Now Human Voices Wake Us

An episode from 12/15/25: Tonight, I read from Irving Howe’s World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made. In light of the events in Australia yesterday, I take the time not just to talk about what it meant to be a Jewish immigrant to America around the year 1900, but what it means to me to be a Jew right now.The best way to support the podcast is by leaving a review on Apple or Spotify, sharing it with others, or sending me a note on what you think. You can also order any of my books: Time and the River: From Columbine to the Invention of Fire, due out next year, is now available for preorder. Other books include Notes from the Grid, To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, and Bone Antler Stone. I've also edited a handful of books in the S4N Pocket Poems series.Email me at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.
  1. #209 – Being a Jew in 1900, Being a Jew Now
  2. #208: Bach & God
  3. #207 – Death, the Gods, and Endless Life in Ancient Egypt
  4. #206 – The Discovery of Indo-European Languages – 1876
  5. #205: Learning to Read, c. 2000 BCE
  6. #204: Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," 1856
  7. #203: Bruce Springsteen Talks About "Nebraska" – 1984
  8. #202 – A Death at Sea, 1834
  9. #201 – Gillian Anderson, & What Women Want, 2024
  10. #200: The Last Days of Walter Benjamin, 1940

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