Marthy's Younkit Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEEFF GG HIIJJKK LLMMNNOODD DDPPQQNNAA AARREESSTT UUVVFFWWXX QQFFBCYYAAThe mountain brook sung lonesomelike and loitered on its way | A |
Ez if it waited for a child to jine it in its play | A |
The wild flowers uv the hillside bent down their heads to hear | B |
The music uv the little feet that had somehow grown so dear | C |
The magpies like winged shadders wuz a flutterin' to an' fro | D |
Among the rocks an' holler stumps in the ragged gulch below | D |
The pines an' hemlocks tosst their boughs like they wuz arms and made | E |
Soft sollum music on the slope where he had often played | E |
But for these lonesome sollum voices on the mountain side | F |
There wuz no sound the summer day that Marthy's younkit died | F |
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We called him Marthy's younkit for Marthy wuz the name | G |
Uv her ez wuz his mar the wife uv Sorry Tom the same | G |
Ez taught the school house on the hill way back in ' | - |
When she marr'd Sorry Tom wich owned the Gosh all Hemlock mine | H |
And Marthy's younkit wuz their first wich bein' how it meant | I |
The first on Red Hoss Mountain wuz truly a' event | I |
The miners sawed off short on work ez soon ez they got word | J |
That Dock Devine allowed to Casey what had just occurred | J |
We loaded up an' whooped around until we all wuz hoarse | K |
Salutin' the arrival wich weighed ten pounds uv course | K |
- | |
Three years and sech a pretty child his mother's counterpart | L |
Three years an' sech a holt ez he had got on every heart | L |
A peert an' likely little tyke with hair ez red ez gold | M |
A laughin' toddlin' everywhere 'nd only three years old | M |
Up yonder sometimes to the store an' sometimes down the hill | N |
He kited boys is boys you know you couldn't keep him still | N |
An' there he'd play beside the brook where purpul wild flowers grew | O |
An' the mountain pines an' hemlocks a kindly shadder threw | O |
An' sung soft sollum toons to him while in the gulch below | D |
The magpies like strange sperrits went flutterin' to an' fro | D |
- | |
Three years an' then the fever come it wuzn't right you know | D |
With all us old ones in the camp for that little child to go | D |
It's right the old should die but that a harmless little child | P |
Should miss the joy uv life an' love that can't be reconciled | P |
That's what we thought that summer day an' that is what we said | Q |
Ez we looked upon the piteous face uv Marthy's younkit dead | Q |
But for his mother's sobbin' the house wuz very still | N |
An' Sorry Tom wuz lookin' through the winder down the hill | N |
To the patch beneath the hemlocks where his darlin' used to play | A |
An' the mountain brook sung lonesomelike an' loitered on its way | A |
- | |
A preacher come from Roarin' Crick to comfort 'em an' pray | A |
'Nd all the camp wuz present at the obsequies next day | A |
A female teacher staged it twenty miles to sing a hymn | R |
An' we jined her in the chorus big husky men an' grim | R |
Sung Jesus Lover uv my Soul an' then the preacher prayed | E |
An' preacht a sermon on the death uv that fair blossom laid | E |
Among them other flowers he loved wich sermon set sech weight | S |
On sinners bein' always heeled against the future state | S |
That though it had been fashionable to swear a perfec' streak | T |
There warn't no swearin' in the camp for pretty nigh a week | T |
- | |
Last thing uv all four strappin' men took up the little load | U |
An' bore it tenderly along the windin' rocky road | U |
To where the coroner had dug a grave beside the brook | V |
In sight uv Marthy's winder where the same could set an' look | V |
An' wonder if his cradle in that green patch long an' wide | F |
Wuz ez soothin' ez the cradle that wuz empty at her side | F |
An' wonder if the mournful songs the pines wuz singin' then | W |
Wuz ez tender ez the lullabies she'd never sing again | W |
'Nd if the bosom of the earth in wich he lay at rest | X |
Wuz half ez lovin' 'nd ez warm ez wuz his mother's breast | X |
- | |
The camp is gone but Red Hoss Mountain rears its kindly head | Q |
An' looks down sort uv tenderly upon its cherished dead | Q |
'Nd I reckon that through all the years that little boy wich died | F |
Sleeps sweetly an' contentedly upon the mountain side | F |
That the wild flowers uv the summer time bend down their heads to hear | B |
The footfall uv a little friend they know not slumbers near | C |
That the magpies on the sollum rocks strange flutterin' shadders make | Y |
An' the pines an' hemlocks wonder that the sleeper doesn't wake | Y |
That the mountain brook sings lonesomelike an' loiters on its way | A |
Ez if it waited for a child to jine it in its play | A |
Eugene Field
(1)
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