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254 IX CODA, THE AGRARIAN WAY Nay! There is no finality, No dictum to obey Nature is one vast infinity, And the mind a small timidity Feeling the way. —From “Nay,” Wind and Weather (New York: Scribner, 1916) The Seven Stars—doubtless Liberty Hyde Bailey’s most forgotten title from the Background Books series—is the source of this strange and wonderful essay-cum-allegory entitled “Journey’s End.” The final chapter in this fantastical volume finds the protagonist, Questor, arriving, as the chapter title “Journey’s End” intimates, at the threshold of adulthood. As if a modern-day Arthurian knight, Questor is helped to epiphany by a leading lady, Winneth, who serves as both spiritual counsel and guiding muse. Questor is likely a semiautobiographical representation of Bailey as a young man as well as a composite figure of the many idealistic farmers’ sons Bailey encountered as a lifelong teacher. Accordingly, Winneth bears some similarities to Annette Smith, the young woman who would become the real-life Mrs. Bailey. This comparison is further suggested by the tonal harmonies between “Journey’s End” and the last poem, “Annette,” in Bailey’s Background Book of poems, Wind and Weather, which reads: “Tis many years since we were born / Tis many years since we were wed— / The winds have blown from night till morn / As they will blow when we are dead.” “Journey’s End” achieves resolution when Winneth provides young Questor a list of life principles—haunting statements of faith and caution that serve as an agrarian coda. ...

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