Analysis of A Liz Town Humorist

James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)



Settin' round the stove, last night,
Down at Wess's store, was me
And Mart Strimples, Tunk, and White,
And Doc Bills, and two er three
Fellers o' the Mudsock tribe
No use tryin' to describe!
And says Doc, he says, says he--,
'Talkin' 'bout good things to eat,
Ripe mushmillon's hard to beat!'

I chawed on. And Mart he 'lowed
Wortermillon beat the mush--.
'Red,' he says, 'and juicy-- Hush--!
I'll jes' leave it to the crowd!'
Then a Mudsock chap, says he--,
'Punkin's good enough fer me--
Punkin pies, I mean,' he says--,
Them beats millons--! What say, Wess?

I chawed on. And Wess says--, 'Well,
You jes' fetch that wife of mine
All yer wortermillon-rine--,
And she'll bile it down a spell--
In with sorghum, I suppose,
And what else, Lord only knows--!
But I'm here to tell all hands
Them p'serves meets my demands!'

I chawed on. And White he says--,
'Well, I'll jes' stand, in with Wess--
I'm no hog!' And Tunk says--, 'I
Guess I'll pastur' out on pie
With the Mudsock boys!' says he;
'Now what's yourn?' he says to me:
I chawed on-- fer-- quite a spell
Then I speaks up, slow and dry--,
Jes' tobacker!' I-says-I--.
And you'd ort o' heerd 'em yell!


Scheme ABABCCBDD AEEXBBFG HIIHJJKK FGLLBBHLLH
Poetic Form
Metre 110111 111111 011101 0110101 101011 111101 0111111 1011111 11111 1110111 1101 1110101 1111101 101111 110111 1011111 111111 1110111 1111111 1111 0111101 0110101 0111101 1111111 1111101 1110111 1111011 1110111 111111 101111 1111111 1111101 1111101 11111 0111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,125
Words 222
Sentences 19
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 9, 8, 8, 10
Lines Amount 35
Letters per line (avg) 23
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 202
Words per stanza (avg) 53
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:07 min read
90

James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively. more…

All James Whitcomb Riley poems | James Whitcomb Riley Books

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    Who wrote the 1916 poem "Out, Out—"?
    A Emily Dickinson
    B Robert Browning
    C Robert Frost
    D Elinor Frost