When, haply, you have fared
Where glad Aladdin shared
His lamp with you, and dared
The Afrite and his clan;
And, with him, clambered through
The trees where jewels grew—
And filled your pockets, too,
Old Man?
Or, with Sinbad, at sea—
And in veracity
Who has sinned as bad as he,
Or would, or will, or can?—
Have you listened to his lies,
With open mouth and eyes,
And learned his art likewise,
Old Man?
And you need not deny
That your eyes were wet as dry,
Reading novels on the sly!
And review them, if you can,
And the same warm tears will fall—
Only faster, that is all—
Over Little Nell and Paul,
Old Man!
O, you were a lucky lad—
Just as good as you were bad!
And the host of friends you had—
Charley, Tom, and Dick, and Dan;
And the old School-Teacher, too,
Though he often censured you;
And the girls in pink and blue,
Old Man.
And—as often you have leant,
In boyish sentiment,
To kiss the letter sent
By Nelly, Belle, or Nan—
Wherein the rose's hue
Was red, the violet blue—
And sugar sweet—and you,
Old Man,—
So, to-day, as lives the bloom,
And the sweetness, and perfume
Of the blossoms, I assume,
On the same mysterious plan
The master's love assures,
That the self-same boy endures
In that hale old heart of yours,
Old Man.
CONTENTS
| THE OLD SWIMMIN'-HOLE, AND 'LEVEN MORE POEMS | |
| The Delights of our Childhood is soon Passed Away | [2] |
| The Old Swimmin'-Hole | [3] |
| Thoughts fer The Discuraged Farmer | [6] |
| A Summer's Day | [9] |
| A Hymb of Faith | [13] |
| Wortermelon Time | [16] |
| My Philosofy | [20] |
| When the Frost is on the Punkin | [23] |
| On the Death of Little Mahala Ashcraft | [26] |
| The Mulberry Tree | [29] |
| To my Old Friend, William Leachman | [31] |
| My Fiddle | [36] |
| The Clover | [39] |
| NEGHBORLY POEMS On Friendship, Grief and Farm-Life | |
| Us Farmers in the Country, as the Seasons go and Come | [42] |
| Erasmus Wilson | [43] |
| My Ruthers | [48] |
| On a Dead Babe | [51] |
| A Old Played-out Song | [52] |
| "Coon-dog Wess" | [55] |
| Perfesser John Clark Ridpath | [62] |
| A Tale of the Airly Days | [66] |
| "Mylo Jones's Wife" | [68] |
| On a Splendud Match | [71] |
| Old John Clevenger on Buckeyes | [72] |
| The Hoss | [78] |
| Ezra House | [82] |
| A Pen-Pictur' | [86] |
| Wet-weather Talk | [90] |
| Thoughts on a Pore Joke | [93] |
| A Mortul Prayer | [94] |
| The First Bluebird | [96] |
| Evagene Baker | [97] |
| On any Ordenary Man | [100] |
| Town and Country | [101] |
| Lines Writ fer Isaac Bradwell | [103] |
| Decoration Day on the Place | [104] |
| The Tree-Toad | [107] |
| The Rossville Lectur' Course | [109] |
| When the Green Gits Back in the Trees | [112] |
| How it Happened | [114] |
| A Dos't o' Blues | [117] |
| The Old Home by the Mill | [119] |
| The Way it Wuz | [121] |
| Pap's Old Sayin' | [125] |
| Romancin' | [128] |
| AN OLD SETTLER'S STORY | [133] |
| DIALECT IN LITERATURE | [195] |
| Originally contributed to The Forum—reprinted here by permission. |