Told By Poem Rhyme Scheme

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James Whitcomb Riley

Told By Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Coming clean from the Maryland end	A
Of this great National Road of ours	B
Through your vast West with the time to spend	A
Stopping for days in the main towns where	C
Every citizen seemed a friend	A
And friends grew thick as the wayside flowers	B
I found no thing that I might narrate	D
More singularly strange or queer	E
Than a thing I found in your sister state	D
Ohio at a river town down here	F
In my notebook Zanesville situate	D
On the stream Muskingum broad and clear	E
And navigable through half the year	E
North to Coshocton south as far	G
As Marietta But these facts are	G
Not of the story but the scene	H
Of the simple little tale I mean	H
To tell directly from this straight through	I
To the end that is best worth listening to	I
	-
Eastward of Zanesville two or three	J
Miles from the town as our stage drove in	K
I on the driver's seat and he	J
Pointing out this and that to me	J
On beyond us among the rest	L
A grovey slope and a fluttering throng	M
Of little children which he 'guessed'	L
Was a picnic as we caught their thin	K
High laughter as we drove along	M
Clearer and clearer Then suddenly	J
He turned and asked with a curious grin	K
What were my views on Slavery 'Why '	-
I asked in return with a wary eye	N
'Because ' he answered pointing his whip	O
At a little whitewashed house and shed	L
On the edge of the road by the grove ahead	L
'Because there are two slaves there ' he said	L
'Two Black slaves that I've passed each trip	O
For eighteen years Though they've been set free	J
They have been slaves ever since ' said he	J
And as our horses slowly drew	I
Nearer the little house in view	I
All briefly I heard the history	J
Of this little old Negro woman and	L
Her husband house and scrap of land	L
How they were slaves and had been made free	J
By their dying master years ago	P
In old Virginia and then had come	Q
North here into a free state so	P
Safe forever to found a home	R
For themselves alone for they left South there	C
Five strong sons who had alas	S
All been sold ere it came to pass	S
This first old master with his last breath	T
Had freed the parents He went to death	T
Agonized and in dire despair	C
That the poor slave children might not share	C
Their parents' freedom And wildly then	U
He moaned for pardon and died Amen	U
	-
Thus with their freedom and little sum	Q
Of money left them these two had come	Q
North full twenty long years ago	P
And settling there they had hopefully	J
Gone to work in their simple way	V
Hauling gardening raising sweet	L
Corn and popcorn Bird and bee	J
In the garden blooms and the apple tree	J
Singing with them throughout the slow	P
Summer's day with its dust and heat	L
The crops that thirst and the rains that fail	W
Or in Autumn chill when the clouds hung low	P
And hand made hominy might find sale	W
In the near town market or baking pies	X
And cakes to range in alluring show	P
At the little window where the eyes	X
Of the Movers' children driving past	L
Grew fixed till the big white wagons drew	I
Into a halt that would sometimes last	L
Even the space of an hour or two	I
As the dusty thirsty travelers made	L
Their noonings there in the beeches' shade	L
By the old black Aunty's spring house where	C
Along with its cooling draughts were found	L
Jugs of her famous sweet spruce beer	E
Served with her gingerbread horses there	C
While Aunty's snow white cap bobbed 'round	L
Till the children's rapture knew no bound	L
As she sang and danced for them quavering clear	E
And high the chant of her old slave days	Y
	-
'Oh Lo'd Jinny my toes is so'	Y
Dancin' on yo' sandy flo' '	-
	-
Even so had they wrought all ways	Y
To earn the pennies and hoard them too	I
And with what ultimate end in view	I
They were saving up money enough to be	J
Able in time to buy their own	Z
Five children back	A2
	-
Ah the toil gone through	I
And the long delays and the heartaches too	I
And self denials that they had known	Z
But the pride and glory that was theirs	Y
When they first hitched up their shackly cart	L
For the long long journey South The start	L
In the first drear light of the chilly dawn	B2
With no friends gathered in grieving throng	M
With no farewells and favoring prayers	Y
But as they creaked and jolted on	C2
Their chiming voices broke in song	M
	-
''Hail all hail don't you see the stars a fallin'	C2
Hail all hail I'm on my way	V
Gideon am	D2
A healin' ba'm	D2
I belong to the blood washed army	D2
Gideon am	D2
A healin' ba'm	D2
On my way ''	-
	-
And their return with their oldest boy	E2
Along with them Why their happiness	Y
Spread abroad till it grew a joy	E2
Universal It even reached	L
And thrilled the town till the Church was stirred	L
Into suspecting that wrong was wrong	M
And it stayed awake as the preacher preached	L
A Real 'Love' text that he had not long	M
To ransack for in the Holy Word	L
	-
And the son restored and welcomed so	Y
Found service readily in the town	C2
And with the parents sure and slow	Y
He went 'saltin' de cole cash down '	-
	-
So with the next boy and each one	C2
In turn till four of the five at last	L
Had been bought back and in each case	Y
With steady work and good homes not	L
Far from the parents they chipped in	C2
To the family fund with an equal grace	Y
Thus they managed and planned and wrought	L
And the old folks throve Till the night before	F2
They were to start for the lone last son	C2
In the rainy dawn their money fast	L
Hid away in the house two mean	C2
Murderous robbers burst the door	F2
Then in the dark was a scuffle a fall	G2
An old man's gasping cry and then	C2
A woman's fife like shriek	H2
	-
Three men	C2
Splashing by on horseback heard	L
The summons And in an instant all	G2
Sprung to their duty with scarce a word	L
And they were in time not only to save	I2
The lives of the old folks but to bag	J2
Both the robbers and buck and gag	J2
And land them safe in the county jail	W
Or as Aunty said with a blended awe	K2
And subtlety 'Safe in de calaboose whah	K2
De dawgs caint bite 'em '	-
	-
So prevail	W
The faithful So had the Lord upheld	L
His servants of both deed and prayer	C
HIS the glory unparalleled	L
Theirs the reward their every son	C2
Free at last as the parents were	L2
And as the driver ended there	C
In front of the little house I said	L
All fervently 'Well done well done '	-
At which he smiled and turned his head	L
And pulled on the leaders' lines and 'See '	-
He said ''you can read old Aunty's sign '	-
And peering down through these specs of mine	C2
On a little square board sign I read	L
	-
'Stop traveler if you think it fit	L
And quench your thirst for a fip and a bit	L
The rocky spring is very clear	E
And soon converted into beer '	-
	-
And though I read aloud I could	L
Scarce hear myself for laugh and shout	L
Of children a glad multitude	L
Of little people swarming out	L
Of the picnic grounds I spoke about	L
And in their rapturous midst I see	D2
Again through mists of memory	D2
A black old Negress laughing up	M2
At the driver with her broad lips rolled	L
Back from her teeth chalk white and gums	Y
Redder than reddest red ripe plums	Y
He took from her hand the lifted cup	M2
Of clear spring water pure and cold	L
And passed it to me And I raised my hat	L
And drank to her with a reverence that	L
My conscience knew was justly due	I
The old black face and the old eyes too	I
The old black head with its mossy mat	L
Of hair set under its cap and frills	Y
White as the snows on Alpine hills	Y
Drank to the old black smile but yet	L
Bright as the sun on the violet	L
Drank to the gnarled and knuckled old	L
Black hands whose palms had ached and bled	L
And pitilessly been worn pale	W
And white almost as the palms that hold	L
Slavery's lash while the victim's wail	W
Fails as a crippled prayer might fail	W
Aye with a reverence infinite	L
I drank to the old black face and head	L
The old black breast with its life of light	L
The old black hide with its heart of gold	L