"Howdy, Honey, Howdy!"
Do' a-stan'in' on a jar, fiah a-shinin' thoo,Ol' folks drowsin' 'roun' de place, wide awake is Lou,W'en I tap, she answeh, an' I see huh 'mence to grin,"Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?"
Den I step erpon de log layin' at de do',Bless de Lawd, huh mammy an' huh pap's done 'menced to sno',Now's de time, ef evah, ef I's gwine to try an' win,"Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?"
No use playin' on de aidge, trimblin' on de brink,Wen a body love a gal, tell huh whut he t'ink;W'en huh hea't is open fu' de love you gwine to gin,Pull yo'se'f togethah, suh, an' step right in.
Sweetes' imbitation dat a body evah hyeahed,Sweetah den de music of a lovesick mockin'-bird,Comin' f'om de gal you loves bettah den yo' kin,"Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?"
At de gate o' heaven w'en de storm o' life is pas','Spec' I 'll be a-stan'in', 'twell de Mastah say at las',"Hyeah he stan' all weary, but he winned his fight wid sin.Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?"
Words in this poem
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- grin n.
- A snare; a gin. [AS. grin.]
- mammy n.
- A child's name for mamma, mother.
- brink n.
- The edge, margin, or border of a steep place, as of a precipice; a bank or edge, as of a river or pit; a verge; a border; as, the brink of a chasm. Also Fig. [Dan. brink edge, verge; akin to Sw. brink declivity, hill, Icel. brekka; cf. LG. brink a grassy hill, W. bryn hill, bryncyn hillock.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"Howdy, Honey, Howdy!" is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Project Gutenberg ebook #18338; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Howdy, Honey, Howdy!", in The Complete Poems (1893–1905), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #18338, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/dunbar-poems/howdy-honey-howdy.html, id L00751.
Form and metre
"Howdy, Honey, Howdy!" is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets, 70% of the lines. The metre is trochaic hexameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 12.1 syllables.
See other poems in rhyming couplets, other poems in trochaic hexameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABB thooA · louA · grinB · inB
- 2 --AA do · sno · winA · inA
- 3 AABB brinkA · t'inkA · ginB · inB
- 4 --AA hyeahed · bird · kinA · inA
- 5 --AA pas · las · sinA · inA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic hexameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Do' a-stan'in' on a jar, fiah a-shinin' thoo, | 12 | ············ |
| Ol' folks drowsin' 'roun' de place, wide awake is Lou, | 12 | ········˘/·· |
| W'en I tap, she answeh, an' I see huh 'mence to grin, | 13 | ············· |
| "Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?" | 11 | /˘/˘/˘····· |
| Den I step erpon de log layin' at de do', | 11 | ··········· |
| Bless de Lawd, huh mammy an' huh pap's done 'menced to sno', | 13 | ····/˘······· |
| Now's de time, ef evah, ef I's gwine to try an' win, | 13 | ············· |
| "Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?" | 11 | /˘/˘/˘····· |
| No use playin' on de aidge, trimblin' on de brink, | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| Wen a body love a gal, tell huh whut he t'ink; | 12 | ··/˘········ |
| W'en huh hea't is open fu' de love you gwine to gin, | 13 | ····/˘······· |
| Pull yo'se'f togethah, suh, an' step right in. | 11 | ·/˘········ |
| Sweetes' imbitation dat a body evah hyeahed, | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
| Sweetah den de music of a lovesick mockin'-bird, | 13 | ····/˘··/˘··· |
| Comin' f'om de gal you loves bettah den yo' kin, | 12 | /˘·········· |
| "Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?" | 11 | /˘/˘/˘····· |
| At de gate o' heaven w'en de storm o' life is pas', | 12 | ····/······· |
| 'Spec' I 'll be a-stan'in', 'twell de Mastah say at las', | 14 | ·············· |
| "Hyeah he stan' all weary, but he winned his fight wid sin. | 13 | ····/˘······· |
| Howdy, honey, howdy, won't you step right in?" | 11 | /˘/˘/˘····· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.