Riley Farm-Rhymes

by James Whitcomb Riley

Excerpt from Riley Farm-Rhymes

When early march seems middle may when the frost IS ON the punkin when the green gits back IN the trees where the children used To play wortermelon time.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Nonfiction

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1905

About the author

James Whitcomb Riley, an American, known as the Hoosier Poet, wrote his
most famous works, “Little Orphant Annie” (1885) and “The Raggedy Man” (1890), in particular speech patterns to Indiana.

Elizabeth Marine Riley in a small cabin bore him to Reuben A. Riley, local attorney. After James Whitcomb, the governor of Indiana, parents named him. Many of the visitors to home of his father influenced him. In particular, he ably picked up the cadence and character of the dialect of central Indiana and the travelers along the old National Road, which came through the many poems that he went to write.

Mary Alice Smith, a particular visitor, eventually stayed to live with the Riley family. Mary Alice ("Allie") Smith influenced Riley, Little Orphant Annie, which was originally to be called Little Orphant Allie but an error of the typesetter changed the name of the poem.

Riley was never a great student. Before he dropped out of school at age 16, a former teacher encouraged him to appreciate nature. He attempted to study law in his father's law office, however he found that the law was not for him, whereupon he took several different jobs in rapid succession.

Riley had his first poem published in 1870 when he was 21. He began writing for several newspapers, eventually working for the Indianapolis Journal in Indianapolis, Indiana writing miscellaneous articles, versifying whenever possible.

Riley's big break came with the private publishing of a thousand copies of The Old Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More Poems in 1883 under the pseudonym of "Benjamin F. Johnson, of Boone". The book rapidly sold all of the first printing, causing Indianapolis book publisher Merrill, Meigs and Company to quickly contract with Riley to publish the second edition of The Old Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More Poems. Riley continued to work with the publishing company which eventually became Bowen-Merrill and finally Bobbs-Merrill. The 1886 publishing The Boss Girl began to publish new Riley literature regularly. As a result he began to tour the United States giving lectures, starting in the mid-1880s.

In 1893 he was invited to live at the residence of Charles and Magdalena Holstein within the Indianapolis neighborhood of Lockerbie. He would call this his permanent residence for the last 23 years of his life, although he eventually purchased his childhood home, and allowed his brother, John Riley, to live there.

He was in demand throughout his life, including being a guest at the White House. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1912 the National Institute of Arts and Letters gave him the gold medal of poetry, the first poet so honored. He also received several honorary degrees.

Riley loved children, but he never had any of his own; he also never married. Evidence points that he regretted his bachelorhood and childlessness. Many believe that his poems about and for children were written due to this regret. Others attribute his poems to his regrets over alcoholism and his possible affliction with syphilis.

Indiana honored Riley after his death in 1916 by burying him in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. The site of his grave is atop Strawberry Hill, the highest point in Indianapolis, offering a spectacular view of the city. Although Riley's poetry has fallen out of popularity, a few of his poems, such as Little Orphant Annie and Lockerbie Street, continue to be taught in schools in Indiana.

In 1916 a group of prominent citizens from Indianapolis organized the Riley Memorial Association (now the Riley Children's Foundation) to build a children's hospital in memory of the Hoosier Poet. The James Whitcomb Riley Hospital for Children opened in 1924.

The foundation also purchased the poet's home in his later years in downtown Indianapolis; it is maintained as a museum and today, the James Whitcomb Riley Museum Home is the only late-Victorian home in Indiana that is o

Reviews

[Mattia · Rating 3 out of 5]

American poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) had only an eighth-grade education (he graduated when he was twenty), but he was a successful newspaper reporter and a very popular poet in the 1880s and 1890s. Farm Rhymes was first published in 1888 and the poems are quite Victorian and sentimental, but I think this collection holds up better for modern adult readers than Riley's children's poems or humorous poems do, although the latter two were more popular in his lifetime.

This is quite a short collection of simple poems about rural life, written in either Indiana dialect (I didn't find it hard to understand, and I'm not American) or standard late nineteenth century American English. Topics include harvest, fishing, family, nostalgia for childhood, and descriptions of nature - birds and woods especially. There are black and white illustrations for each poem; only a third of the pages have text on them, and there's not a lot of text on the page.

This collection was first published in 1888 and the poems are quite Victorian and sentimental, but I think Farm Rhymes holds up better for modern adult readers than Riley's children's poems or humorous poems do, although the latter two were more popular in his lifetime.

I read this book in about an hour one morning, it's really very short. My favourite poem out of the collection is 'When the frost is on the punkin.' It's fairly widely published on the internet, and seasonally appropriate.


When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock

And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey cock

And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens

And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence

O, it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best

With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest

As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock


They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees

And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees

But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.


The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,

And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;

The stubble in the furries kindo' lonesome-like, but still

A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;

The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;

The hosses in theyr stalls below the clover over-head!

O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!


Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps

Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;

And your cider-makin' 's over, and your wimmern-folks is through

With their mince and apple butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too!

I don't know how to tell it but ef sich a thing could be

As the Angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me

I'd want to 'commodate 'em all the whole-indurin' flock

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

A scan of the 1901 edition of Farm Rhymes is available for free on the Internet Archive. The epub doesn't preserve the line breaks and the scanning program garbled the dialect beyond comprehension, so I read the PDF. More of Riley's works are available for free on Project Gutenberg.

[David Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

Riley Farm - Rhymes by James Whitcomb Riley (Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers 1905) (821) (3842).

This is a silly and trite collection of rhyming verse penned by James Whitcomb Riley, who had to have been up against a publishing deadline when he submitted this set of nonsense to his publisher.

Loosely grouped as “farm rhymes,” most of the poems in this collection are written in the author’s attempt to transcribe country dialect and spelling.

I picture James Whitcomb Riley sitting outdoors desperately casting his eyes about while searching for something - ANYTHING - to try to screeve up a verse about.

Here’s a representative sample from a poem entitled “June,” which opens as follows:

“June”

“O queenly month of indolent repose!

I drink thy breath in sips of rare perfume,

As in thy downy lap of clover-bloom

I nestle like a drowsy child and doze

the lazy hours away...”

This one is even worse:

“When the Frost Is On the Punkin”

“When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,

And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,

And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,

And the rooster’s ballylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence…”

But I saved the worst of this collection for last:

“Wortermelon Time”

“Old wortermelon time is a-comin’ round again,

And they ain’t no man a-livin’ any tickleder’n me,

Fer the way I hanker after watermelon is a sin -

Which is the why and wherefore, as you can plainly see…”

Weird, huh? And that’s a verbatim transcription.

I was given a HB copy published in 1905 in a box of books from a little old lady who was a family friend. If she had any living relatives, I’d take this book back to them.

My rating: 5/10, finished 8/7/23 (3842).

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading these poems about rural life and older days. It is occasionally a little hard to understand the dialect he uses for most of these poems, but it adds to the quaint feeling and solid feel of country life.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as bad as some poems

[Meen]

I bought this one only b/c of the special meaning his Songs O'Cheer has for me. (See my review of that one for the story.) Otherwise, I never would've considered it b/c it has some pretty serious water damage along the bottom of all the pages.