Old Man's Nursery Rhyme
James Whitcomb Riley 1849 (Greenfield) – 1916 (Indianapolis)
I.
In the jolly winters
Of the long-ago,
It was not so cold as now--
O! No! No!
Then, as I remember,
Snowballs, to eat,
Were as good as apples now,
And every bit as sweet!
II.
In the jolly winters
Of the dead-and-gone,
Bub was warm as summer,
With his red mitts on,--
Just in his little waist-
And-pants all together,
Who ever heard him growl
About cold weather?
III.
In the jolly winters of the long-ago--
Was it _half_ so cold as now?
O! No! No!
Who caught his death o' cold,
Making prints of men
Flat-backed in snow that now's
Twice as cold again?
IV.
In the jolly winters
Of the dead-and-gone,
Startin' out rabbit-hunting
Early as the dawn,--
Who ever froze his fingers,
Ears, heels, or toes,--
Or'd a cared if he had?
Nobody knows!
V.
Nights by the kitchen-stove,
Shelling white and red
Corn in the skillet, and
Sleepin' four abed!
Ah! the jolly winters
Of the long-ago!
We were not so old as now--
O! No! No!
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
- 115 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABcBdece AFdxxdxd bcBxgxg AFxfahxh xixiaBcB |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 879 |
Words | 178 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 7, 8, 8 |
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"Old Man's Nursery Rhyme" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/20989/old-man's-nursery-rhyme>.
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