Badger Clark's poem "Small Town" praises the small town as a place of clear sweet air, close friendship, and children whose promise gives it lasting power. Contrasting it with cities, factories, and markets, the poem presents the small town as the starting place of great people and future heroes. Clark, who lived from 1883 to 1957, was a South Dakota author, lecturer, poet, and the state's first Poet Laureate, and his devotion to rugged individualism, the outdoors, Dakota, and its friendly people was reflected in his life and writings.