DOWN AROUND THE RIVER PS JDOTHEKPOEMS JAMES WHITCOMB RJLEY STATIONERY 1 \}V"- DOWN AROUND THE RIVER AND OTHER POEMS BY AMES WHIXr'^^^- ]^i.i^i WITH PICTURES BY WILL VAWTER INDIANAPOLIS liii:. B0B15S-AIKRR1LL lOAli'ANY PUBLISHERS Copyright, 191 i, BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY AH Rights Reserved PRESS OF BRAUNWORTH & CO. BOOKBINDERS AND PRINTERS BROOKLYN, N. V. DOWN AROUND THE RIVER NOON-TIME an' June-time, down around the river ! Have to furse with 'Lizey Ann — but lawzy ! I fergive her! Drives me off the place, an' says 'at all 'at she's a-wish- in', Land o' gracious ! time'll come I'll git enough o' fishin' ! Little Dave, a-choppin' wood, never 'pears to notice; Don't know where she's hid his hat, er keerin' where his coat is, — Specalatin', more'n like, he hain't a-goin' to mind me, An' guessin' where, say twelve o'clock, a feller'd likely find me ! DOWN AROUND TQE RIVER Noon-time an' June-time, down around the river! Clean out o' sight o' home, an' skulkin' under kivver Of the sycamores, jack-oaks, an' swamp-ash an' el- him — Idies all so jumbled up, you kin hardly tell 'em ! — Tired, you know, but loviii it, an' smilin' jes' to think 'at Any sivcctcr tiredness you'd fairly want to dri>ik it ! Tired o' fishin' — tired o' fun — line out slack an' slacker — All you want in all the world's a little more tobacker! Hungry, but a-hidin' it, er jes' a-not a-keerin : — King-fisher gittin' up an' skootin' out o' hearin' ; Snipes on the t'other side, where the County Ditch is, Wadin' up an' down the aidge like they'd rolled their britches ! Old turkle on the root kindo'-sorto' drappin' Intoo th' worter like he don't know how it happen ! Worter, shade an' all so mixed, don't know which you'd orter Say : th' zvorter in the shadder — shaddcr in the zi/ortcr! DOWN AROUND THE RIVER Somebody hollerin' — 'way around the bend in Upper Fork — where yer eye kin jes' ketcli the endin' Of the shiney wedge o' wake some muss-rat's a-makin' With that pesky nose o' his ! Then a sniff o' bacon, Corn-bred an' 'dock-greens — an' little Dave a-shinnin' 'Crost the rocks an' mussel-shells, a-limpin' an' a-grin- nin', With yer dinner fer ye, an' a blessin' from the giver. Noon-time an' June-time, down around the river! ME AND MARY ALL my feelin's in the Spring Gils so blame contrary, I can't think of anything Only me and Mary ! "Me and Mary!" all the time, "Me and Mary!" like a rhyme, Keeps a-dingin' on till I'm Sicko' "Me and Mary!" lO i. 'JUCU: *^/ 4'\ / ^ ME AND MARY "Me and Mary! Ef us two Only was together — Playin' like we used to do In the Aprile weather!" All the night and all the day I keep wishin' thataway Till Fm gittin' old and gray Jes on "Me and Mary !" Muddy yit along the pike Sence the Winter's freezin', And the orchard's back'ard-like Bloomin' out this season ; Only heerd one bluebird yit — Nary robin ner tomtit; What's the how and why of it? 'Spect it's "Me and Mary!" Me and Mary liked the birds — That is, Mary sorto' Liked 'em first, and afterwards, W'y, I thought /'(/ ort'o. And them birds — ef Mary stood Right here with me, like she should — • They'd be singin', them birds would. All fer me and Mary. 12 ME AND MARY Birds er not, I'm hopin' some I can git to plowin' ! Ef the sun'll only come. And the Lord allowin'. Guess to-morry I'll turn inj And git down to work ag'in; This here loaferin' won't win. Not f er me and Mary ! Fer a man that loves, like me, And's a f card to name it. Till some other feller, he Gits the girl — dad-shame-it ! Wet er dry, er clouds er sun — Winter gone er jes begun — Outdoor work fer me er none, No more "Ale and Mary !" 13 A GLIMPSE OF PAN I CAUGHT but a glimpse of him. Summer was here, And I strayed from the town and its dust and heat And walked in a wood, while the noon was near, Where the shadows were cool, and the atmosphere Was misty with fragrances stirred by my feet From surges or blossoms tlmt billowed sheer O'er the grasses, green and sweet. H A GLIMPSE OF PAN And I peered through a vista of leaning- trees, Tressed with long tangles of vines that swept To the face of a river, that answered these With vines in the wave like the vines in the breeze, Till the yearning lips of the ripples crept And kissed them, with quavering ecstasies, And gurgled and laughed and wept. And there, like a dream in a swoon, I swear I saw Pan lying, — his limbs in the dew And the shade, and his face in the dazzle and glare Of the glad sunshine; while everywhere, Over, across, and around him blew Filmy dtagonflies hither and there. And little white butterflies, two and two. In eddies of odorous air. 15 f* THE CIRCUS PARADE ^•^ THE Circus! — The Circus! — The throb of the drums, And the blare of the horns, as the Band-wagon comes; The clash and the clang of the cymbals that beat, As the glittering pageant winds down the long street! In the Circus parade there is glory clean down From the first spangled horse to the mule of the Clown, With the gleam and the glint and the glamour and glare Of the days of enchantment all glimmering there ! i6 THE CIRCUS PARADE And there are the banners of silvery fold Caressing" the winds with their fringes of gold, And their high-lifted standards, with spear-tips aglow, And the helmeted knights that go riding below. There's the Chariot, wrought of some marvelous shell The Sea gave to Neptune, first washing it well With its fabulous waters of gold, till it gieam.s Like the galleon rare of an Argonaut's dreams. And the Elephant, too, (with his undulant stride That rocks the high throne of a king in his pride). That in jungles of India shook from his flanks The tigers that leapt from the Jujubee-banks. Here's the long, ever-changing, mysterious line Of the Cages, with hints of their glories divine From the barred little windows, cut high in the rear, Where the close-hidden animals' noses appear. Here's the Pyramid-car, with its splendor and flash. And the Goddess on high, in a hot-scarlet sash And a pen-wiper skirt ! — O, the rarest of sights Is this "Queen of the Air" in cerulean tights! i8 THE CIRCUS PARADE Then the far-away clash of the cymbals, and then The swoon of the tune ere it wakens again With the capering tones of the gallant cornet That go dancing away in a mad minuet. The Circus! — The Circus! — The throb of the drums, And the blare of the horns, as the Band-wagon comes ; The clash and the clang of the cymbals that beat, As the glittering pageant winds down the long street. 19 yr -"fV^-'jE^^^-.rrift, -» THE MUSKINGUM VALLEY THE Muskingum Valley! — How longin' the gaze A feller throws back on its long summer-days, When the smiles of its blossoms and my smiles wuz one- And-the-same, from the rise to the set o' the sun : Wher' the hills sloped as soft as the dawn down to noon, And the river run by like an old' fiddle-tune, And the hours glided past as the bubbles 'ud glide, All so loaferin'-like, 'long the path o' the tide. In the Muskingum Valley — it 'peared like the skies Looked lovin' on me as my own mother's eyes, While the laucfhin'-cad sons: of the stream seemed to be Like a lullaby angels was wastin' on me — 20 ^ THE MUSKINGUM VALLEY Tel, swimmin' the air, like the gossamer's thread, 'Twixt the blue underneath and the blue overhead, My thoughts went a-stray in that so-to-speak realm Wher' Sleep bared her breast as a piller fer them. In the Muskingum Valley, though far, far a-way, I know that the winter is bleak there to-day — No bloom ner perfume on the brambles er trees — Wher' the buds used to bloom, now the icicles freeze. — That the grass is all hid 'long the side of the road Wher' the deep snow has drifted and shifted and blowed — And I feel in my life the same changes is there, — The frost in my heart, and the snow in my hair. But, Muskingum Valley! my memory sees Not the white on the ground, but the green in the trees — Not the froze'-over gorge, but the current, as clear And warm as the drop that has jes trickled here ; Not the choked-up ravine, and the hills topped with snow, But the grass and the blossoms I knowed long ago When mv little bare feet wundered down wher' the stream In the Muskingum Valley flowed on like a dream. 22 THE TREE-TOAD " '^CUR'OUS-LIKE," said the tree-toad. SCUR'( '6 twittered fer rain all day ; And I got up soon, And hollered tel noon — But the sun. hit blazed away, Tel I jest clumb down in a crawfish-hole, Weary at hart, and sick at soul ! "Dozed away ler an hour, And I tackled the thing agin : And I sung, and sung, Tel I knowed my lung Was jest about give in ; And then, thinks I, ef hit don't rain noiv, They's nothin' in singin', anyhow ! 23 THE TREE-TOAD "Onc't in a while some farmer Would come a-drivin' past; And he'd hear my cry, And stop and sigh — Tel I jest laid back, at last, And I hollered rain tel I thought my th'oat Would bust wide open at ever' note ! "But I fetched her !— O, / fetched her- - 'Cause a little while ago, As I kindo' set. With one eye shet, And a-singin' soft and low, A voice drapped down on my fevered brain, A-sayin', — 'Ef you'll jest hush I'll rain!' " 24 IN SWOIMING-TIME CLOUDS above, as white as wool, Drifting- over skies as blue As the eyes of beautiful Children when they smile at you : Groves of maple, elm and beech, With the sunshine sifted througrh Branches, mingling each with each, Dim with shade and bright with dew. Stripling trees, and poplars hoar, Hickory and sycamore, And the drowsy dogwood, bowed Where the ripples laugh aloud, And the crooning creek is stirred To a gaiety that now Mates the warble of the bird, Teetering on the hazel-bough. 25 IN SWIMMING-TIME Grasses long and fine and fair As your schoolboy-sweetheart's hair Backward stroked and twirled and twined By the fingers of the wind : Vines and mosses interlinked Down dark aisles and deep ravines, Where the stream runs, willow-brinked. Round a bend where some one leans, Faint, and vague, and indistinct As the like-reflected thing In the current shimmering. Childish voices, further on, Where the truant stream has gone. Vex the echoes of the wood Till no word is understood — Save that we are well aware Happiness is hiding there : — There, in leafy coverts, nude Little bodies poise and leap, Spattering the solitude And the silence, everywhere — Mimic monsters of the deep ! — 26 t IN SWIMMING-TIME Wallowing- in sandy shoals — Plunging- headlong out of sight, And, with spurtings of delight, Clutching hands, and slippery soles, Climbing up the treacherous steep, Over which the spring-board spurns Each again as he returns ! Ah ! the glorious carnival ! Purple lips — and chattering teeth- Eyes that burn — But, in beneath, Every care beyond recall — Every task forgotten quite — And again in dreams at night, Dropping, drifting through it all! 28 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. The zephyr throws The shifting shuttle of tlie Summer's loom And weaves a damask-work of gleam and gloom Before thy listless feet, llic lily blows A bugle-call of fragrance o'er the glade; And, wheeling into ranks, with plume and spear, Thy harvest-armies gather on parade ; While, faint and far away, yet pure and clear, A voice calls out of alien lands of shade : — All hail the Peerless Goddess of the Year! 29 LONnoM T^OOK CO. A'^OO UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 251859 5 \ / i L «.