To the Good Old-Fashioned People
The deadnin' and the thicket's jes' a b'ilin' full o' June,From the rattle o' the cricket, to the yaller-hammer's tune;And the catbird in the bottom and the sap-suck on thesnag,Seems's ef they cain't--od-rot-'em!--jes' do nothin' elsebut brag!
There' music in the twitter o' the bluebird and the jay,And that sassy little critter jes' a-peckin' all the day;There' music in the "flicker," and there' music in thethrush,And there' music in the snicker o' the chipmunk in thebrush!--
There' music all around me!--And I go back--in a dreamSweeter yit than ever found me fast asleep:--And, in thestreamThat used to split the medder wher' the dandylionsgrowed,I stand knee-deep, and redder than the sunset down theroad.
Words in this poem
- snag n.
- A stump or base of a branch that has been lopped off; a short branch, or a sharp or rough branch; a knot; a protuberance. [Prov. E., n., a lump on a tree where a branch has been cut off; v., to cut off the twigs and small branches from a tree, of Celtic origin; cf. Gael. snaigh, sna]
- twitter n.
- One who twits, or reproaches; an upbraider. [From Twit.]
- bluebird n.
- A small song bird (Sialia sialis), very common in the United States, and, in the north, one of the earliest to arrive in spring.
- flicker v. i.
- To flutter; to flap the wings without flying. [OE. flikeren, flekeren, to flutter, AS. flicerian, flicorian, cf. D. flikkeren to sparkle. Flacker.]
- snicker v. i.
- To laugh slyly; to laugh in one's sleeve. [Cf. D. snikken to sob, to sigh.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Good Old-Fashioned People is in the public domain. This text is taken from Riley Farm-Rhymes, Project Gutenberg ebook #4783; 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, To the Good Old-Fashioned People, in Riley Farm-Rhymes (1883–1901), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #4783, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/riley-farm-rhymes/to-the-good-old-fashioned-people.html, id L01946.
Form and metre
To the Good Old-Fashioned People is 19 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is trochaic heptameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 79%). 100% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 9.1 syllables. 47% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic heptameter.
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 AA-B-B juneA · tuneA · the · snagB · else · bragB
- 2 AABCBC jayA · dayA · theB · thrushC · theB · brushC
- 3 ABA-CBC dreamA · theB · streamA · dandylions · growedC · theB · roadC
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 heptameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The deadnin' and the thicket's jes' a b'ilin' full o' June, | 14 | ·····/˘··/˘··· |
| From the rattle o' the cricket, to the yaller-hammer's tune; | 15 | ··/˘··/˘····/˘· |
| And the catbird in the bottom and the sap-suck on the | 14 | ··/···/˘······ |
| snag, | 1 | · |
| Seems's ef they cain't--od-rot-'em!--jes' do nothin' else | 13 | /˘········/˘· |
| but brag! | 2 | ·· |
| There' music in the twitter o' the bluebird and the jay, | 14 | ·/˘··/˘··/···· |
| And that sassy little critter jes' a-peckin' all the day; | 15 | ··/˘/˘/˘······· |
| There' music in the "flicker," and there' music in the | 13 | ·/˘··/˘··/˘·· |
| thrush, | 1 | · |
| And there' music in the snicker o' the chipmunk in the | 14 | ··/˘··/˘··/˘·· |
| brush!-- | 1 | · |
| There' music all around me!--And I go back--in a dream | 14 | ·/˘··········· |
| Sweeter yit than ever found me fast asleep:--And, in the | 14 | /˘··/˘···˘/··· |
| stream | 1 | · |
| That used to split the medder wher' the dandylions | 12 | ············ |
| growed, | 1 | · |
| I stand knee-deep, and redder than the sunset down the | 13 | ·····/˘··/··· |
| road. | 1 | · |
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.