You's Sweet to Yo' Mammy Jes De Same
Shet yo' eyes, ma little pickaninny, go to sleepMammy's watchin' by you all de w'ile;Daddy is a-wukin' down in de cott'n fiel',Wukin' fu' his little honey child.An' yo' mammy's heart is jes a-brimmin' full o' lubFu' you f'om yo' head down to yo' feet;Oh, no mattah w'at some othah folks may t'ink o' you,To yo' mammy's heart you's mighty sweet.
You's sweet to yo' mammy jes de same;Dat's why she calls you Honey fu' yo' name.Yo' face is black, dat's true,An' yo' hair is woolly, too,But, you's sweet to yo' mammy jes de same.
Up der in de big house w'ere dey lib so rich an' gran'Dey's got chillen dat dey lubs, I s'pose;Chillen dat is purty, oh, but dey can't lub dem mo'Dan yo' mammy lubs you, heaben knows!
Dey may t'ink you's homely, an' yo' clo'es dey may be po',But yo' shinin' eyes, dey hol's a lightDat, my Honey, w'en you opens dem so big an' roun',Makes you lubly in yo' mammy's sight.
Words in this poem
- pickaninny n.
- A small child; especially, a negro or mulatto infant. [U.S. & West Indies] [Cf. Sp. pequeño little, young.]
- daddy n.
- Diminutive of Dad.
- 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.]
- mammy n.
- A child's name for mamma, mother.
- homely a.
- Belonging to, or having the characteristics of, home; domestic; familiar; intimate. [From Home, n.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
You's Sweet to Yo' Mammy Jes De Same is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, You's Sweet to Yo' Mammy Jes De Same, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/you-s-sweet-to-yo-mammy-jes-de-same.html, id L08338.
Form and metre
You's Sweet to Yo' Mammy Jes De Same is 21 lines in 4 stanzas. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.2 syllables. 14% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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 -----A-A sleep · w'ile · fiel · child · lub · feetA · you · sweetA
- 2 AABBA sameA · nameA · trueB · tooB · sameA
- 3 -A-A gran · s'poseA · mo · knowsA
- 4 -A-A po · lightA · roun · sightA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Shet yo' eyes, ma little pickaninny, go to sleep | 12 | ····/˘/˘˘··· |
| Mammy's watchin' by you all de w'ile; | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Daddy is a-wukin' down in de cott'n fiel', | 11 | /˘········· |
| Wukin' fu' his little honey child. | 9 | ····/˘/˘· |
| An' yo' mammy's heart is jes a-brimmin' full o' lub | 13 | ············· |
| Fu' you f'om yo' head down to yo' feet; | 9 | ········· |
| Oh, no mattah w'at some othah folks may t'ink o' you, | 13 | ············· |
| To yo' mammy's heart you's mighty sweet. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| You's sweet to yo' mammy jes de same; | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Dat's why she calls you Honey fu' yo' name. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Yo' face is black, dat's true, | 6 | ······ |
| An' yo' hair is woolly, too, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| But, you's sweet to yo' mammy jes de same. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Up der in de big house w'ere dey lib so rich an' gran' | 13 | ············· |
| Dey's got chillen dat dey lubs, I s'pose; | 9 | ········· |
| Chillen dat is purty, oh, but dey can't lub dem mo' | 13 | ············· |
| Dan yo' mammy lubs you, heaben knows! | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| Dey may t'ink you's homely, an' yo' clo'es dey may be po', | 13 | ····/˘······· |
| But yo' shinin' eyes, dey hol's a light | 9 | ········· |
| Dat, my Honey, w'en you opens dem so big an' roun', | 13 | ··/˘··/˘····· |
| Makes you lubly in yo' mammy's sight. | 9 | ········· |
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.