The Old Hay-Mow
The Old Hay-mow's the place to playFer boys, when it's a rainy day!I good-'eal ruther be up thereThan down in town, er anywhere!
When I play in our stable-loft,The good old hay's so dry an' soft,An' feels so fine, an' smells so sweet,I 'most ferget to go an' eat.
An' one time wunst I did fergetTo go 'tel dinner was all et,--An' they had short-cake--an'--Bud heHogged up the piece Ma saved fer me!
Nen I won't let him play no moreIn our hay-mow where I keep storeAn' got hen-eggs to sell,--an' shooThe cackle-un old hen out, too!
An' nen, when Aunty she was hereA-visitun from Rensselaer,An' bringed my little cousin,--heCan come up there an' play with me.
But, after while--when Bud he bets'At I can't turn no summersetts,--I let him come up, ef he canAc' ha'f-way like a gentleman!
Words in this poem
- hogged a.
- Broken or strained so as to have an upward curve between the ends. See Hog, v. i.
- shoo interj.
- Begone; away; -- an expression used in frightening away animals, especially fowls. [Cf. G. scheuchen to scare, drive away.]
- aunty n.
- A familiar name for an aunt. In the southern United States a familiar term applied to aged negro women.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Old Hay-Mow 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 Old Hay-Mow, in Riley Child-Rhymes (1890), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9777, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/riley-child-rhymes/the-old-hay-mow.html, id L25063.
Form and metre
The Old Hay-Mow is 24 lines in 6 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is AABB, complete in 4 of its 6 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 80%).
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 AABB playA · dayA · thereB · anywhereB
- 2 AABB loftA · softA · sweetB · eatB
- 3 --AA ferget · et · heA · meA
- 4 AABB moreA · storeA · shooB · tooB
- 5 AABB hereA · rensselaerA · heB · meB
- 6 --AA bets · summersetts · canA · gentlemanA
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 Old Hay-mow's the place to play | 8 | ········ |
| Fer boys, when it's a rainy day! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| I good-'eal ruther be up there | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Than down in town, er anywhere! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When I play in our stable-loft, | 8 | ····//˘· |
| The good old hay's so dry an' soft, | 8 | ········ |
| An' feels so fine, an' smells so sweet, | 8 | ········ |
| I 'most ferget to go an' eat. | 8 | ········ |
| An' one time wunst I did ferget | 8 | ········ |
| To go 'tel dinner was all et,-- | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| An' they had short-cake--an'--Bud he | 8 | ········ |
| Hogged up the piece Ma saved fer me! | 8 | ········ |
| Nen I won't let him play no more | 8 | ········ |
| In our hay-mow where I keep store | 8 | ·/······ |
| An' got hen-eggs to sell,--an' shoo | 8 | ········ |
| The cackle-un old hen out, too! | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| An' nen, when Aunty she was here | 8 | ········ |
| A-visitun from Rensselaer, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| An' bringed my little cousin,--he | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Can come up there an' play with me. | 8 | ········ |
| But, after while--when Bud he bets | 8 | ········ |
| 'At I can't turn no summersetts,-- | 8 | ········ |
| I let him come up, ef he can | 8 | ········ |
| Ac' ha'f-way like a gentleman! | 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.