The Hoosier Folk-child Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABBBBBBCCDDEFDD BBDDDDG H H IJHH DDBBKKIIHHLLDDBB DDMMHHHHNNDDOOBB JJBBHHDDBBDDBBPP| The Hoosier Folk Child all unsung | A |
| Unlettered all of mind and tongue | A |
| Unmastered unmolested made | B |
| Most wholly frank and unafraid | B |
| Untaught of any school unvexed | B |
| Of law or creed all unperplexed | B |
| Unsermoned aye and undefiled | B |
| An all imperfect perfect child | B |
| A type which Heaven forgive us you | C |
| And I do tardy honor to | C |
| And so profane the sanctities | D |
| Of our most sacred memories | D |
| Who growing thus from boy to man | E |
| That dares not be American | F |
| Go Pride with prudent underbuzz | D |
| Go whistle as the Folk Child does | D |
| - | |
| The Hoosier Folk Child's world is not | B |
| Much wider than the stable lot | B |
| Between the house and highway fence | D |
| That bounds the home his father rents | D |
| His playmates mostly are the ducks | D |
| And chickens and the boy that 'shucks | D |
| Corn by the shock ' and talks of town | G |
| And whether eggs are 'up' or 'down ' | - |
| And prophesies in boastful tone | H |
| Of 'owning horses of his own ' | - |
| And 'being his own man ' and 'when | H |
| He gets to be what he'll do then ' | - |
| Takes out his jack knife dreamily | I |
| And makes the Folk Child two or three | J |
| Crude corn stalk figures a wee span | H |
| Of horses and a little man | H |
| - | |
| The Hoosier Folk Child's eyes are wise | D |
| And wide and round as Brownies' eyes | D |
| The smile they wear is ever blent | B |
| With all expectant wonderment | B |
| On homeliest things they bend a look | K |
| As rapt as o'er a picture book | K |
| And seem to ask whate'er befall | I |
| The happy reason of it all | I |
| Why grass is all so glad a green | H |
| And leaves and what their lispings mean | H |
| Why buds grow on the boughs and why | L |
| They burst in blossom by and by | L |
| As though the orchard in the breeze | D |
| Had shook and popped its popcorn trees | D |
| To lure and whet as well they might | B |
| Some seven league giant's appetite | B |
| - | |
| The Hoosier Folk Child's chubby face | D |
| Has scant refinement caste or grace | D |
| From crown to chin and cheek to cheek | M |
| It bears the grimy water streak | M |
| Of rinsings such as some long rain | H |
| Might drool across the window pane | H |
| Wherethrough he peers with troubled frown | H |
| As some lorn team drives by for town | H |
| His brow is elfed with wispish hair | N |
| With tangles in it here and there | N |
| As though the warlocks snarled it so | D |
| At midmirk when the moon sagged low | D |
| And boughs did toss and skreek and shake | O |
| And children moaned themselves awake | O |
| With fingers clutched and starting sight | B |
| Blind as the blackness of the night | B |
| - | |
| The Hoosier Folk Child Rich is he | J |
| In all the wealth of poverty | J |
| He owns nor title nor estate | B |
| Nor speech but half articulate | B |
| He owns nor princely robe nor crown | H |
| Yet draped in patched and faded brown | H |
| He owns the bird songs of the hills | D |
| The laughter of the April rills | D |
| And his are all the diamonds set | B |
| In Morning's dewy coronet | B |
| And his the Dusk's first minted stars | D |
| That twinkle through the pasture bars | D |
| And litter all the skies at night | B |
| With glittering scraps of silver light | B |
| The rainbow's bar from rim to rim | P |
| In beaten gold belongs to him | P |
James Whitcomb Riley
(1)
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About The Hoosier Folk-child
The Hoosier Folk-child is a poem by James Whitcomb Riley. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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