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“Farmhand” Introduction
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"Farmhand" was written by the 20th-century New Zealand poet James K. Baxter. The poem focuses on a young farmhand standing outside a dance hall, attempting to seem cool and aloof despite an internal longing to join the party and maybe even get a girlfriend. With his "hairy hands" and "sunburnt face," however, the farmworker feels too rough and tumble to enter the world of the dance hall. At the same time, the poem presents him as an image of strength, skill, and grace when working the harvest, sorting crops, and using his tractor. The poem explores the angst and awkwardness of adolescence while also suggesting that sometimes people are "made" for certain roles in life.
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“Farmhand” Summary
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The speaker describes a young farmhand standing outside a dance hall as if he doesn't have a care in the world—casually smoking, leaning against the wall, or joking with a friend. Sometimes he stares off into the dark, covert night.
And yet, the speaker says, the farmhand always ends up gazing back at the dance floor—and at all the pretty, delicate girls twirling around on it—until the sound of the music coming from the hall slowly, painfully reminds him of some past trauma or rejection.
The farmhand's sunburned face and hairy hands aren't suited to dancing or romancing. His body was made for farm work—for making the mounds of dirt rise before his plow like waves in the ocean and for dealing with crops, whose slow growth reflects the slowness of his mind.
He doesn't have a girlfriend to play with his dark blond hair or to laugh at his jokes when they take walks together on Sundays. Instead, the only audience for his stories are his own uncomfortable wishes and jealous desires.
Even so, you'd be impressed if you ever saw him working the harvest, setting sheaves of wheat together with such natural strength and skill—or if you saw the way he listens like an enraptured lover to the clear, perfect sound of a new tractor engine.
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“Farmhand” Themes
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Identity and Belonging
“Farmhand” centers on a young farmworker playing it cool outside a dance hall even as he inwardly longs to join the fun and find a girlfriend. The rough, practical farmhand doesn't feel like he belongs in the world represented by the dance floor, however, and instead is in his element only when out in the fields. Through his story, the poem suggests that people are suited to certain roles in life while also relaying the painful conflict that arises when someone's deepest desires conflict with those roles.
The farmhand is a skilled and dedicated laborer whose outward appearance reflects how suited he is to his work. He is “effortless and strong,” for example, and the roughness of his hands reflects his intimate connection with the land. In other words, his external identity embodies the role he plays in society: that of a tough, practical, working man.
But the farmhand also clearly longs to break out of this role, at least during the dance. His internal desires thus don’t totally line up with the identity he projects; though he seems easy with jokes and calm and collected outside the dance hall—apparently embracing his separation from such a frivolous party—deep down he has “awkward hopes” and “envious dreams,” casting a lingering gaze on the girls at the dance and wishing he could find a girl to shower him with affection.
To the farmhand, these girls seem to represent an utterly alien form of life. While they are delicate, beautiful, and flower-like—clearly not used to the kind of manual labor that fills his days—his face is “sunburnt” and his hands are “hairy.” The farmhand senses the contrast between himself and the girls deeply, despite what his seemingly confident persona might suggest.
The farmhand thus lingers at the door of the dance hall as though there is a kind of force field keeping him outside it. And in a way, there is: the speaker argues that the farmhand was in fact not “made for dancing or love-making.” According to the poem, then, the issue isn't just that people's inner selves and appearances don't always match up; it's that people are made a certain way, and that they can't change who they are regardless of their heart's desires. The farmhand can no more do the latest dance craze than the young dancers can stack hay or drive a tractor, at least in the speaker's view.
As such, it's only when he's back in the fields where he presumably belongs that the farmhand becomes a vision of perfection, working the harvest in the way that, according to the poem, he was born to do. He hears a “new tractor engine” as though he is a “lover” listening to a “song,” and the poem ultimately implies that there is beauty and grace (and, of course, some poignancy) in embracing the role one is meant to play.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-20
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Youth, Angst, and Romance
"Farmhand" illustrates the awkwardness and anxiety of youth—and, more specifically, of young romance. Through the lonely longing of the young farmhand, the poem speaks to the angst, hope, and potential disappointment that comes with growing up and falling in love. At the same time, the poem suggests that finding love requires taking a risk and putting yourself out there—even if doing so means potentially swallowing the bitter pill of rejection and heartache.
The speaker is clearly trying very hard to come across as cool, calm, and collected as he stands outside the dance hall—basically, to pretend that he doesn't care what goes on inside. He casually lights a cigarette and leans "careless / Against the wall," yet the speaker makes it clear that this nonchalance is actually a studied defense mechanism. Like many teenagers and twenty-somethings, the farmhand wants to seem desirably aloof because that means he doesn't have to put himself out there and face potential rejection.
Indeed, deep down, the speaker feels the same longing for a partner that most young people feel, fantasizing about having a “girl” to go with him on Sunday walks and run her fingers through his hair. Yet he remains on the sidelines, never going inside the hall and in fact turning away from the dancing girls once the music "tears" an "old wound open." This mention of a "wound" suggests that he's been burned before—perhaps at a dance just like this one—and is too scared of facing that pain again. As such, he acts like he's above it all—and thus is left only with his own "awkward hopes" and "envious dreams" for companions.
Many readers can perhaps identify with the farmhand's attempt to build up an emotional wall to prevent himself from getting hurt, seeking solace instead in the less complicated world of his work. He listens "like a lover" to the perfect sound of a new tractor, for now free from the messy world of girls and romance. Yet though the speaker never says whether the farmhand regrets missing out on the opportunity for connection that the dance presents, the poem's melancholy tone implies that the young man will have a tender "wound" for some time to come.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-16
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Farmhand”
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Lines 1-4
You will see ...
... the secret night.The poem begins by describing the young farmhand of the title attending a dance—or, more accurately, standing outside the dance hall and pretending not to care about said dance!
The poem immediately distances the farmhand from everyone else by turning the reader into a direct observer of the scene: "You will see him," the speaker begins. The reader is thus aligned with the speaker, set apart from the young man and instead sharing in the speaker's observations.
These four lines show the young farmhand trying to appear cool and detached. He lights his cigarette in a "careless" way. He leans against a wall, tells jokes, and looks off into the middle distance like some kind of rural James Dean.
But the poem signals to the reader that, for all his outward projection of coolness, on the inside he's anxious and angsty. The farmhand's actions are presented as a kind of list, using both asyndeton ("At the hall door careless, leaning his back / Against the wall") and polysyndeton ("or telling some new joke / To a friend, or looking") to give the impression that all these actions are again somewhat studied and self-conscious. It feels like the farmhand is going through the motions of what he thinks he's supposed to do to seem like he's not interested in what's going on inside the dance hall.
A number of other devices here represent the farmhand's attempt to seem aloof. Lines 1-3 are all enjambed, for example, creating a kind of laid-back flow to the farmhand's actions.
The stanza is also full of soft /l/ sounds, in "will" and "light" (line 1), "hall," "careless," and "leaning" (line 2), "wall" and "telling" in line 3, and "looking" in line 4. This consonance has a languid gentleness to it that mirrors the farmhand's attempt at looking cool and unhurried.
Finally, it's worth reiterating that the farmhand is "at the hall door," rather than properly inside the dance hall itself. This paints him as a kind of outsider and a peripheral figure, as though some kind of force field—perhaps his status as a farmhand—prevents him from ever fully entering the perhaps more middle-class and modern world represented by the dance.
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Lines 5-8
But always his ...
... old wound open.
Unlock all 318 words of this analysis of Lines 5-8 of “Farmhand,” and get the Line-by-Line Analysis for every poem we cover.
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Lines 9-12
His red sunburnt ...
... as his mind. -
Lines 13-16
He has no ...
... to yarn to. -
Lines 17-20
But ah in ...
... new tractor engine.
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“Farmhand” Symbols
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The Dance Hall
The dance hall is, of course, a literal dance hall in the poem—a place where young people gather to have fun. The farmhand feels out of place in the hall, being much more at home in the fields. But this other world—in which girls drift "like flowers" on the dance floor—is one that he wishes he could enter.
More broadly, then, the dance hall can be thought of as symbolizing the farmhand's deepest longings and desires. The "hall door" itself, mentioned in line 2, also becomes a kind of symbol, a portal between these two very different worlds—and, in a way, between two different possible lives.
The fact that the farmhand doesn't go inside the dance, then, represents him rejecting, or being too afraid to embrace, everything it represents. In other words, he fails to follow through his own "awkward hopes" and "envious dreams." He may feel more comfortable working the harvest, but the poignancy of the poem lies in the implication that he will, in some way, always feel like he's existing outside of his own heart, looking in on a life he wants but can't, or maybe just won't allow himself to, have.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 2-3: “At the hall door careless, leaning his back / Against the wall,”
- Lines 5-6: “But always his eyes turn / To the dance floor and the girls drifting like flowers”
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“Farmhand” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Alliteration is used throughout "Farmhand," mostly to bring the poem's images to life. These images are used to highlight both the farmhand's awkwardness at the dance and his skill and strength when it comes to agricultural work.
In line 6, alliteration comes in pairs:
To the dance floor and the girls drifting like flowers
The two alliterative sounds—/d/ and /f/—suggest both the strong, punchy rhythms of the music in the hall and the delicateness of the dancing girls. The soft /f/ sound makes them seem gentle and almost otherworldly, while the /d/ projects youthful confidence (which the farmhand longs to possess).
In the third stanza, the poem focuses on the farmhand's physical appearance. He is described in line 9 as having "hairy hands," an alliterative phrase that is deliberately cartoonish and comic. This helps paint a kind of "Beauty and the Beast" scenario, with the farmhand seemingly lacking the physical traits that would make him feel more at ease at the dance.
The fourth stanza is full of alliteration. In lines 13-15, the poem constructs a kind of fantasy on the farmhand's behalf, as the speaker imagines what the farmhand desires (and lacks):
He has no girl to run her fingers through
His sandy hair, and giggle at his side
When Sunday couples walk. [...]Notice how these alliterative sounds have a playful, carefree quality. The /h/ evokes the sound of laughter, while the /s/ sounds are whispery and intimate. In other words, the sounds help build an image of the girlfriend that the farmhand would like to have—and thus help underline that no such person currently exists.
In the last stanza, the poem describes the farmhand in his element. He "fork[s] stooks, effortless and strong," the clear alliteration here (as well as the consonance and assonance of this phrase) suggesting physical strength and skill. In the following line, the sounds are softer: the gentle /l/ sounds of "listening like a lover" reflects the sense of harmony that exists between the farmhand and one of his most important tools—the tractor.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 6: “dance,” “floor,” “drifting,” “flowers”
- Line 8: “old,” “open”
- Line 9: “hairy hands”
- Line 13: “He has,” “girl,” “her”
- Line 14: “His,” “sandy,” “hair,” “giggle,” “his side”
- Line 15: “Sunday”
- Line 16: “He has his,” “hopes,” “his”
- Line 18: “stooks,” “strong”
- Line 19: “listening like,” “lover,” “song”
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Assonance
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Caesura
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Consonance
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End-Stopped Line
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Enjambment
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Asyndeton
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Metaphor
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Simile
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“Farmhand” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Plough
- Yarn
- Forking stooks
Plough-
(Location in poem: Line 12: “To the plough, and crops slow-growing as his mind.”)
A farming tool used for turning up the earth.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Farmhand”
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Form
"Farmhand" has a regular form, using quatrains (four-line stanzas) throughout. Each quatrain is also end-stopped in its final line, making the poem read like five connected yet individual scenes—like different parts of a short film. The poem feels steady and controlled as a result of this form, and, in a way, this reflects what the farmhand himself wants to project: an image of cool, calm detachment, despite the desire roiling in his heart.
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Meter
"Farmhand" is written mostly in free verse and thus doesn't have a clear meter throughout. The looseness of the meter, particularly early in the poem, reflects the seemingly "careless" attitude of the farmhand at the dance. That is, the poem projects the same kind of cool posture towards its sound that the farmhand projects when it comes to his appearance and mannerisms.
The most metrically regular section of the poem is lines 13-15, which are nearly iambic all the way (meaning they follow an unstressed-stressed beat pattern):
He has no girl to run her fingers through
His sandy hair, and giggle at his side
When Sunday couples walk. InsteadNotice how this regularly coincides with an image "going steady"—of being in a romantic relationship. This steadiness is broken by line 16, which explains, with intentional clunkiness, that:
He has his awkward hopes, his envious dreams to yarn to.
To "yarn" is to tell a long and perhaps rambling story—and, appropriately enough, the line itself drags on with an ambiguous meter, and ends on the uncertainty of an unstressed syllable ("yarn to").
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Rhyme Scheme
"Farmhand" is quite unusual in terms of its rhyme scheme, or, really, it's lack thereof; while it does have a structural pattern going on, this pattern rarely actually rhymes.
Most of the poem's end-words have paired consonant sounds as opposed to full, perfect rhymes —"cigarette"/"night" and "back"/"joke" in stanza 1, for example. This not-quite-rhyming scheme mimics one of the most common patterns of all: enclosed rhyme, which goes ABBA:
[...] cigarette A
[...] back B
[...] joke B
[...] night. AOther pairs, like "him" and "engine" in lines 17 and 20, use shared assonant sounds. The overall effect of all of these loosely connected pairings is to give the poem the sense that something is not quite as it seems. Bold, perfect rhymes at the end of each line might make the poem—and thus the farmhand's character—seem more confident and assured. He wants to seem totally cool and collected, but the awkward almost-rhymes suggest that he's trying to be something he's not.
There are some perfect rhymes in the poem, however, and they arrive at moments of clarity—moments when people lean into their roles. In lines 10 and 11, for example, the poem contrasts people who are "made" for things like "dancing or love-making" with those who, like the farmhand, are better suited to "the earth wave breaking / To the plough" (i.e., to outdoor labor). Because the poem so frequently gesture towards rhyme rather than actually using it, the clear rhyme of "love-making" with "breaking" calls readers' attention to this moment. The rhyme emphasizes the idea that these two kinds of people are essentially opposites (in the speaker's summation at least).
The poem ends by depicting the farmhand in a more positive light, showing how skilled and graceful he can be when it comes to working the harvest. Here, "strong" (line 18) chimes loudly and clearly with "strong" (line 19), suggesting the farmhand's natural aptitude for his work. Gone, for a moment, are the pseudo-rhymes that characterize the earlier poem, replaced by a matching pair that reflects the farmhand being well-matched to his work.
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“Farmhand” Speaker
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"Farmhand" gives very little away about its speaker, instead keeping the reader's attention on the farmhand himself. The speaker acts as an omniscient narrator, able to describe the thoughts and feelings of the poem's main character. On the one hand, this helps the reader empathize with the farmhand's internal conflict and his reluctance to join in at the dance. But this also keeps the farmhand at a distance from the reader, with the farmhand given no chance to say anything about the picture the poem paints of him.
In keeping with this sense of distance, there are also two points in the poem at which the speaker seems to directly address the reader, asking the latter to "see" the farmhand first at the dance and then, at the end of the poem, to "watch" the farmhand working the harvest.
With the above in mind, it's possible to infer how the speaker sees the world. In the third stanza ("His red sunburnt face [...] crops slow-growing as his mind"), the speaker suggests that people are "made" for different roles in society. So though the speaker can detect the farmhand's inability to fit in at the dance, the speaker also admires the farmhand for his physical strength and graceful skill when its comes to his farm work. The reader, too, is invited to feel the same way.
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“Farmhand” Setting
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The poem has two settings: outside a hall in which a dance is taking place, and out in the fields during the harvest. Notably, the poem never moves inside the dance hall—a world the young farmhand feels barred from; all readers know is that young women are "drifting like flowers" on the dance floor, and that music is loud enough to reach the farmhand as he stands at "the hall door."
In this setting, the farmhand pretends to be cool and collected, even as readers know he's intensely aware of his "sunburnt face and hairy hands." He is "awkward" and "envious" in this setting, feeling utterly out of place despite his desire to join the fun.
The other setting appears only at the end of the poem, as the speaker instructs readers to "watch" the farmhand "in harvest"—that is, to look at him in his element, gathering crops and listening to the perfect "song" of his tractor. In this setting, he seems "effortless and strong." The poem, then, presents a contrast between two worlds—that of the dance and that of the fields—and leaves the reader with no doubt as to which suits the farmhand better.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Farmhand”
Literary Context
"Farmhand" was published in James K. Baxter's 1958 collection "In Fires of No Return." Baxter was one of New Zealand's foremost poets and playwrights of the 20th century. His own father was a farmer, and Baxter spent some of his early years on the family farm. Baxter also worked sporadically on farms during his young adulthood, suggesting that this poem may contain some autobiographical sentiments.
"Farmhand" also taps into a history of writing about the turbulence of adolescence and romance. "You May Turn Over and Begin" by Simon Armitage makes for an interesting comparison on the subject of youthful longing and lust. Baxter himself was heavily influenced by the Romantics, whose poetry celebrated the awe and wonder of the natural world. Much of Baxter's work explores the conflict between humanity and nature, with a specific focus on the vast grandeur of the New Zealand landscape.
"Farmhand" also has echoes of the pastoral poetic tradition—poems about landscape and rural life. As is typical of a pastoral poem, "Farmhand" celebrates the relationship between the land and those who work it (see Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" as an example).
Historical Context
James K. Baxter was active as a writer from the 1940s up to his death in 1972, living and working in his native New Zealand. New Zealand had been home to a thriving Māori society for many centuries before British colonizers arrived, and later in his career, Baxter became a passionate activist for the preservation of Māori culture. Much of his later poetry features Māori tropes, ideas, and characters, and he also wrote a great deal of social and religious commentary.
Though the poem doesn't say too much about its specific historical context, it does offer a few clues. The "cigarette," the "dance floor," and strolling "Sunday couples" all point towards the mid-20th century, offering a vision of youthful romance that chimes with the relatively new idea (at the time) that adolescence and young adulthood represented a distinct stage in life, somewhere in between childhood and being fully grown-up. Dance halls were also popular in New Zealand (and many other countries!) throughout the 1940s and '50s, especially as rock 'n roll music made its way to more foreign shores. A place to socialize and tamely flirt, one British writer even called dance halls "the Tinder of their day."
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More “Farmhand” Resources
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External Resources
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Baxter's Biography — Learn more about the poet's life and work courtesy of the poetry foundation.
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New Zealand's Dance Halls — Learn more about the dance hall craze that hit New Zealand's shores in the 1950s.
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Baxter's Poetry Out Loud — Listen to the poet read one of his poems aloud.
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Baxter and Religion — An article about the poet's relationship with his faith throughout his lifetime.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by James K. Baxter
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