The Boy Lives on Our Farm
The boy lives on our Farm, he's notAfeard o' horses none!An' he can make 'em lope, er trot,Er rack, er pace, er run.Sometimes he drives two horses, whenHe comes to town an' bringsA wagon-full o' 'taters nen,An' roastin'-ears an' things.
Two horses is "a team," he says,An' when you drive er hitch,The right-un's a "near-horse," I guessEr "off"--I don't know which--The Boy lives on our Farm, he toldMe, too, 'at he can see,By lookin' at their teeth, how oldA horse is, to a T!
I'd be the gladdest boy aliveEf I knowed much as that,An' could stand up like him an' drive,An' ist push back my hat,Like he comes skallyhootin' throughOur alley, with one armA-wavin' Fare-ye-well! to you--The Boy lives on our Farm!
Words in this poem
- lope v. i.
- To leap; to dance. [See Leap.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Boy Lives on Our Farm is in the public domain. This text is taken from Riley Child-Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #9777; 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 Whitcomb Riley, The Boy Lives on Our Farm, in Riley Child-Rhymes (1890), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9777, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/riley-child-rhymes/the-boy-lives-on-our-farm.html, id L25043.
Form and metre
The Boy Lives on Our Farm is 24 lines in 3 stanzas of 8 lines each. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 ABAB-C-C notA · noneB · trotA · runB · when · bringsC · nen · thingsC
- 2 -A-ABCBC says · hitchA · guess · whichA · toldB · seeC · oldB · tC
- 3 ABABCDCD aliveA · thatB · driveA · hatB · throughC · armD · youC · farmD
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 iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The boy lives on our Farm, he's not | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Afeard o' horses none! | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| An' he can make 'em lope, er trot, | 8 | ········ |
| Er rack, er pace, er run. | 6 | ······ |
| Sometimes he drives two horses, when | 8 | ˘/···/˘· |
| He comes to town an' brings | 6 | ······ |
| A wagon-full o' 'taters nen, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| An' roastin'-ears an' things. | 6 | ······ |
| Two horses is "a team," he says, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| An' when you drive er hitch, | 6 | ······ |
| The right-un's a "near-horse," I guess | 8 | ········ |
| Er "off"--I don't know which-- | 6 | ······ |
| The Boy lives on our Farm, he told | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| Me, too, 'at he can see, | 6 | ······ |
| By lookin' at their teeth, how old | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A horse is, to a T! | 6 | ······ |
| I'd be the gladdest boy alive | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Ef I knowed much as that, | 6 | ······ |
| An' could stand up like him an' drive, | 8 | ········ |
| An' ist push back my hat, | 6 | ······ |
| Like he comes skallyhootin' through | 8 | ········ |
| Our alley, with one arm | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| A-wavin' Fare-ye-well! to you-- | 8 | ········ |
| The Boy lives on our Farm! | 7 | ····/˘· |
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.