Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WHEN UNCLE DOC WAS YOUNG, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Though doctor glen - the best of Last Line: When uncle doc was young. Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Children; Old Age; Physicians; Childhood; Doctors | ||||||||
THOUGH Doctor Glen -- the best of men -- Is wrinkled, old, and gray, He'll always smile and stop a while Where little children play: And often then he tells us, when He was a youngster, too, He was as glad and bad a lad As old folks ever knew! As he walks down, no boy in town But sees him half a block, And stops to shout a welcome out With "Here comes Uncle Doc!" Then all the rest, they look their best As he lines up among Us boys of ten -- each thinking then When Uncle Doc was young. We run to him! -- Though grave and grim, With voice pitched high and thin, He still reveals the joy he feels In all that he has been: With heart too true, and honest, too, To ever hide a truth, He frankly owns, in laughing tones, He was "a sorry youth!" -- When he was young, he says, he sung And howled his level-best; He says he guyed, and sneaked, and lied, And wrecked the robin's nest. -- All this, and worse, will he rehearse, Then smooth his snowy locks And look the saint he says he ain't. . . . Them eyes of Uncle Doc's! He says, when he -- like you and me -- Was just too low and mean To slap asleep, he used to weep To find his face was clean: His hair, he said, was just too red To tell with mortal tongue -- "The Burning Shame" was his nickname When Uncle Doc was young. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DOCTOR WHO SITS AT THE BEDSIDE OF A RAT by JOSEPHINE MILES EL CURANDERO (THE HEALER) by RAFAEL CAMPO HER FINAL SHOW by RAFAEL CAMPO SONG FOR MY LOVER: 13. TOWARDS CURING AIDS by RAFAEL CAMPO WHAT THE BODY TOLD by RAFAEL CAMPO MEDICINE 2; FOR JOHN MURRAY by CAROLYN KIZER THE NERVE DOCTORS by THOMAS LUX DOMESDAY BOOK: DR. BURKE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS A BOY'S MOTHER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |
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