18 pages • 36 minutes read
Donald HallOx Cart Man
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1977A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Persistence
In his obituary of Hall, critic David Kirby called “Ox Cart Man” an “ode to persistence and practicality” (Kirby, David. “Donald Hall, a Poet Laureate of the Rural Life, Is Dead at 89.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 June 2018). Hall’s poem embodies his sense of craft and hard work, and advocates for devoted determination, suggesting that satisfaction is inherent in the fruits of one’s labors. Hall’s use of repetition in the poem underscores the man’s persistence: “When the cart is empty he sells the cart. / When the cart is sold he sells the ox” (Lines 16-17). The man has a clear vision of what he must do; he sets his mind to it and accomplishes it. Knowing that he does not want to travel home for ten days carrying what he brought with him, he expresses no doubt that he will be able to sell everything, and simply goes ahead with selling it with a minimum of fuss.
Persistence, for Hall and his subject, is never-ending value; even as the man achieves what he set out to do at the market, he must return home and begin the cycle anew. The poem ends on this look toward the future, and the next cycle, which the man anticipates will be exactly like the previous. Maintaining a staunch work ethic in the face of what might otherwise be exhausting or boring, the man gains a different kind of joy—a satisfaction that is quieter and perhaps more long-lasting, one that looks into the next season.
Work
The Ox Cart Man’s allegiance to work nicely aligns with the work ethic Hall described for himself as a poet living on his family farm. In a 2014 interview with Alex Dueben, he said, “I worked, for the first 15 years we were here [in New Hampshire], about 10 hours a day, loving almost every minute of it” (Dueben, Alex. “At Eagle Pond.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation). The man in Hall’s poem, while not expressing exuberance, exactly, nevertheless gains quiet satisfaction from his labor. The plodding nature of the poem’s rhythm and the slow, methodical care it takes with the description of each item in the man’s cart and by his fire give the reader a sense of the care he takes with everything, and the value he has for the things he crafts. The man is inherently respectful of his tools, crops, and animals, and has achieved peace with his cycle of work. Kristi L. Thomas notes in School Library Journal that the poem conveys “the sense that work defines us all, connects us with our world, and we are all rewarded [...] in measure of our effort” (“Donald Hall.” Poetry Foundation).
While Hall’s presentation of the man is overarchingly positive and warm, though he does not romanticize the work or not shy away from describing the amount of labor the man has engaged in leading up to his yearly trip to the market. Hall offers several lists of items the man packs and makes sure to note when they include additional labors, like the “vinegar in a barrel / hooped by hand at the forge’s fire” (Lines 9-10). At the end of the poem, the reader learns that even the yoke and the cart are things the man makes year after year. Work provides a deep satisfaction, but the full investment in the work also leaves the man solitary, and perhaps lonely. And at the end of the poem, the reader senses this ambivalence, seeing the man as he has given everything up, and must begin anew, by himself.
The Connection between Nature and the Human World
The Ox Cart Man’s work and livelihood are deeply rooted in his understanding of and relationship with nature, and also dependent on him living in and contributing to a human community. The beginning of the poem describes the man’s practiced, efficient method of farming, as he sorts potatoes and packs his cart. Over the next several stanzas, the reader gathers that the man’s skills extend beyond the field to encompass crafts like tanning, beekeeping, sugaring, and spinning; he has honed his relationship with land and animals to support his own way of life.
The Ox Cart Man is not merely a solitary, live-off-the-land figure, though. He gathers his goods and takes them to the Portsmouth Market, to sell and trade with others in his larger community—notably in exchange for money. The man participates in pastoral farm life, and at the same time is part of the capitalist system of his country. He needs the money for salt, an integral necessity that he cannot generate for himself, and for taxes, to be in alignment with the legal and economic systems of his society. With this subtle line, Hall further illustrates the man’s character; although no other humans enter the poem, the reader still understands the man as having connections with the human world.
