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Armazindy / The Poems and Prose Sketches of James Whitcomb Riley cover

Armazindy / The Poems and Prose Sketches of James Whitcomb Riley

Chapter 31: A NOON LULL
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About This Book

A mixed collection of poems and prose sketches that depicts small‑town and rural life through vernacular narration, sentimental observation, and comic detail. Longer narrative pieces explore personal loss, domestic struggles, and neighborhood intrigues, while shorter lyrics and children’s verses celebrate play, memory, and everyday tenderness. The voice shifts between musical, folksy dialect and plain colloquial phrasing, producing a rhythmic, conversational tone. Recurrent concerns include household labor, family ties, youthful fancy, and the mingled humor and nostalgia of ordinary community experience.

A NOON LULL

’Possum in de ’tater-patch;
Chicken-hawk a-hangin’
Stiddy ’bove de stable-lot,
An’ cyarpet-loom a-bangin’!
Hi! Mr. Hoppergrass, chawin’ yo’ terbacker,
Flick ye wid er buggy-whirp yer spit er little blacker!
Niggah in de roas’in’-yeers,
Whiskers in de shuckin’;
Weasel croppin’ mighty shy,
But ole hen a-cluckin’!
—What’s got de matter er de mule-colt now?
Drapt in de turnip-hole, chasin’ f’um de cow!