Sweetly solemn see them stand,
Spinning churns on either hand,
Neatly capped and aproned white—
Airy fairy dairy sight?
Jersey priestesses they seem
Miracleing milk to cream.

Cream solidifies to cheese
By Pasteural mysteries,
And they give, within their shrine,
Their communion in kine.

Incantations pure they mutter
O’er the golden minted butter
And (no layman hand can pen it)
See them gloat above their rennet!

By that hillside window pane
Rugged teamsters draw the rein,
Doff the battered hat and bow
To these acolytes of cow.

Genuflect, ye passerby!
Muse upon their ritual high—
Milk to cream, yea, cream to cheese
White lacteal mysteries!
Let adorers sing the word
Of the smoothly flowing curd.
Yea, we sing with bells and fife
This is the Whey, this is the life!