Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A OLD PLAYED-OUT SONG, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: It's the curiousest thing in creation Last Line: "the words ""do they miss me at home?" Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Absence; Home; Singing & Singers; Separation; Isolation | ||||||||
IT'S the curiousest thing in creation, Whenever I hear that old song "Do They Miss Me at Home," I'm so bothered, My life seems as short as it's long! -- Fer ev'rything 'pears like adzackly It 'peared in the years past and gone, -- When I started out sparkin', at twenty, And had my first neckercher on! Though I'm wrinkelder, older and grayer Right now than my parents was then, You strike up that song "Do They Miss Me," And I'm jes' a youngster again! -- I'm a-standin' back thare in the furries A-wishin' fer evening to come, And a-whisperin' over and over Them words "Do They Miss Me at Home?" You see, Marthy Ellen she sung it The first time I heerd it; and so, As she was my very first sweethart, It reminds me of her, don't you know; -- How her face ust to look, in the twilight, As I tuck her to Spellin'; and she Kep' a-hummin' that song tel I ast her, Pine-blank, ef she ever missed me! I can shet my eyes now, as you sing it, And hear her low answerin' words; And then the glad chirp of the crickets, As clear as the twitter of birds; And the dust in the road is like velvet, And the ragweed and fennel and grass Is as sweet as the scene of the lilies Of Eden of old, as we pass. "Do They Miss Me at Home?" Sing it lower -- And softer -- and sweet as the breeze That powdered our path with the snowy White bloom of the old locus' trees! Let the whipperwills he'p you to sing it, And the echoes 'way over the hill, Tel the moon boolges out, in a chorus Of stars, and our voices is still. But, oh! "They's a chord in the music That's missed when her voice is away!" Though I listen from midnight tel morning, And dawn tel the dusk of the day! And I grope through the dark, lookin' up'ards And on through the heavenly dome, With my longin' soul singin' and sobbin' The words "Do They Miss Me at Home?" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EVENING OF THE MIND by DONALD JUSTICE CHRISTMAS AWAY FROM HOME by JANE KENYON THE PROBLEM by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES WHEN A WOMAN LOVES A MAN by DAVID LEHMAN THIS UNMENTIONABLE FEELING by DAVID LEHMAN A BOY'S MOTHER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |
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