Farmer Whipple--bachelor Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH HHII JJKLK JJLL LLJJ LLJMM NNO PQQ L JJJJ QQHH LLNN RRSS JJQQ NNLL TTQQ QQHH JJJ QLJ LLQQ JJLL LJQQ QQQUQ QQJJ LLQQ QQLL| It's a mystery to see me a man o' fifty four | A |
| Who's lived a cross old bachelor fer thirty year' and more | A |
| A lookin' glad and smilin' And they's none o' you can say | B |
| That you can guess the reason why I feel so good to day | B |
| - | |
| I must tell you all about it But I'll have to deviate | C |
| A little in beginnin' so's to set the matter straight | C |
| As to how it comes to happen that I never took a wife | D |
| Kindo' 'crawfish' from the Present to the Springtime of my life | D |
| - | |
| I was brought up in the country Of a family of five | E |
| Three brothers and a sister I'm the only one alive | E |
| Fer they all died little babies and 'twas one o' Mother's ways | F |
| You know to want a daughter so she took a girl to raise | F |
| - | |
| The sweetest little thing she was with rosy cheeks and fat | G |
| We was little chunks o' shavers then about as high as that | G |
| But someway we sort a' SUITED like and Mother she'd declare | H |
| She never laid her eyes on a more lovin' pair | H |
| - | |
| Than WE was So we growed up side by side fer thirteen year' | H |
| And every hour of it she growed to me more dear | H |
| W'y even Father's dyin' as he did I do believe | I |
| Warn't more affectin' to me than it was to see her grieve | I |
| - | |
| I was then a lad o' twenty and I felt a flash o' pride | J |
| In thinkin' all depended on ME now to pervide | J |
| Fer Mother and fer Mary and I went about the place | K |
| With sleeves rolled up and workin' with a mighty smilin' | L |
| face | K |
| - | |
| Fer SOMEPIN' ELSE was workin' but not a word I said | J |
| Of a certain sort o' notion that was runnin' through my head | J |
| 'Some day I'd maybe marry and a BROTHER'S love was one | L |
| Thing a LOVER'S was another ' was the way the notion run | L |
| - | |
| I remember onc't in harvest when the 'cradle in' ' was done | L |
| When the harvest of my summers mounted up to twenty one | L |
| I was ridin' home with Mary at the closin' o' the day | J |
| A chawin' straws and thinkin' in a lover's lazy way | J |
| - | |
| And Mary's cheeks was burnin' like the sunset down the lane | L |
| I noticed she was thinkin' too and ast her to explain | L |
| Well when she turned and KISSED ME WITH HER ARMS AROUND | J |
| ME LAW | M |
| I'd a bigger load o' Heaven than I had a load o' straw | M |
| - | |
| I don't p'tend to learnin' but I'll tell you what's a fac' | N |
| They's a mighty truthful sayin' somers in a' almanac | N |
| Er SOMERS 'bout 'puore happiness' perhaps some folks'll laugh | O |
| At the idy 'only lastin' jest two seconds and a half ' | - |
| - | |
| But it's jest as true as preachin' fer that was a SISTER'S | P |
| kiss | Q |
| And a sister's lovin' confidence a tellin' to me this | Q |
| 'SHE was happy BEIN' PROMISED TO THE SON O' FARMER BROWN ' | - |
| And my feelin's struck a pardnership with sunset and went down | L |
| - | |
| I don't know HOW I acted and I don't know WHAT I said | J |
| Fer my heart seemed jest a turnin' to an ice cold lump o' lead | J |
| And the hosses kind o'glimmered before me in the road | J |
| And the lines fell from my fingers And that was all I knowed | J |
| - | |
| Fer well I don't know HOW long They's a dim rememberence | Q |
| Of a sound o' snortin' horses and a stake and ridered fence | Q |
| A whizzin' past and wheat sheaves a dancin' in the air | H |
| And Mary screamin' 'Murder ' and a runnin' up to where | H |
| - | |
| I was layin' by the roadside and the wagon upside down | L |
| A leanin' on the gate post with the wheels a whirlin' roun' | L |
| And I tried to raise and meet her but I couldn't with a vague | N |
| Sort o' notion comin' to me that I had a broken leg | N |
| - | |
| Well the women nussed me through it but many a time I'd sigh | R |
| As I'd keep a gittin' better instid o' goin' to die | R |
| And wonder what was left ME worth livin' fer below | S |
| When the girl I loved was married to another don't you know | S |
| - | |
| And my thoughts was as rebellious as the folks was good and kind | J |
| When Brown and Mary married Railly must 'a' been my MIND | J |
| Was kind o' out o' kilter fer I hated Brown you see | Q |
| Worse'n PIZEN and the feller whittled crutches out fer ME | Q |
| - | |
| And done a thousand little ac's o' kindness and respec' | N |
| And me a wishin' all the time that I could break his neck | N |
| My relief was like a mourner's when the funeral is done | L |
| When they moved to Illinois in the Fall o' Forty one | L |
| - | |
| Then I went to work in airnest I had nothin' much in view | T |
| But to drownd out rickollections and it kep' me busy too | T |
| But I slowly thrived and prospered tel Mother used to say | Q |
| She expected yit to see me a wealthy man some day | Q |
| - | |
| Then I'd think how little MONEY was compared to happiness | Q |
| And who'd be left to use it when I died I couldn't guess | Q |
| But I've still kep' speculatin' and a gainin' year by year | H |
| Tel I'm payin' half the taxes in the county mighty near | H |
| - | |
| Well A year ago er better a letter comes to hand | J |
| Astin' how I'd like to dicker fer some Illinois land | J |
| 'The feller that had owned it ' it went ahead to state | J |
| 'Had jest deceased insolvent leavin' chance to speculate ' | - |
| - | |
| And then it closed by sayin' that I'd 'better come and see ' | - |
| I'd never been West anyhow a'most too wild fer ME | Q |
| I'd allus had a notion but a lawyer here in town | L |
| Said I'd find myself mistakend when I come to look around | J |
| - | |
| So I bids good by to Mother and I jumps aboard the train | L |
| A thinkin' what I'd bring her when I come back home again | L |
| And ef she'd had an idy what the present was to be | Q |
| I think it's more'n likely she'd 'a' went along with me | Q |
| - | |
| Cars is awful tejus ridin' fer all they go so fast | J |
| But finally they called out my stoppin' place at last | J |
| And that night at the tavern I dreamp' I was a train | L |
| O' cars and SKEERED at somepin' runnin' down a country lane | L |
| - | |
| Well in the morning airly after huntin' up the man | L |
| The lawyer who was wantin' to swap the piece o' land | J |
| We started fer the country and I ast the history | Q |
| Of the farm its former owner and so forth etcetery | Q |
| - | |
| And well it was interESTin' I su'prised him I suppose | Q |
| By the loud and frequent manner in which I blowed my nose | Q |
| But his su'prise was greater and it made him wonder more | Q |
| When I kissed and hugged the widder when she met us at the | U |
| door | Q |
| - | |
| IT WAS MARY They's a feelin' a hidin' down in here | Q |
| Of course I can't explain it ner ever make it clear | Q |
| It was with us in that meetin' I don't want you to fergit | J |
| And it makes me kind o'nervous when I think about it yit | J |
| - | |
| I BOUGHT that farm and DEEDED it afore I left the town | L |
| With 'title clear to mansions in the skies ' to Mary Brown | L |
| And fu'thermore I took her and the CHILDERN fer you see | Q |
| They'd never seed their Grandma and I fetched 'em home with me | Q |
| - | |
| So NOW you've got an idy why a man o' fifty four | Q |
| Who's lived a cross old bachelor fer thirty year' and more | Q |
| Is a lookin' glad and smilin' And I've jest come into town | L |
| To git a pair o' license fer to MARRY Mary Brown | L |
James Whitcomb Riley
(2)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Farmer Whipple--bachelor poem by James Whitcomb Riley
Best Poems of James Whitcomb Riley