My Swine, and All The Fowls

“And as touching such worldly estate as the Lord, in mercy hath lent me, my will and meaning is, the same shall be employed and bestowed hereafter …”

—Will of Henry Leland, 1680

Two hundred acres of upland and orchardhe gave his surviving wife forfree and uninterrupted recourseif she could bear the grief.He marked his soul in his own will,as he might a meadow,and to be weightless in His hands,made sure his sons would takebarn, household stuffs, and debt.The married daughter, Experience,lost her last name; it wentlike a goat from the pasture,fat and full of cost.Almost four hundred years later,the family slant graves’ scriptbows almost to the ground.How that humble touchingstone to grass, work to land,comes down, so even nowwe turn from our own announcing.I am still fed from the swine and fowlthe two cows, among them all,he left her to choose.