Armazindy / The Poems and Prose Sketches of James Whitcomb Riley

Chapter 96: THE YELLOWBIRD

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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.

THE YELLOWBIRD

Hey! my little Yellowbird,

What you doing there?

Like a flashing sun-ray,

Flitting everywhere:

Dangling down the tall weeds

And the hollyhocks,

And the lordly sunflowers

Along the garden-walks.

Ho! my gallant Golden-bill,

Pecking ’mongst the weeds,

You must have for breakfast

Golden flower-seeds:

Won’t you tell a little fellow

What you have for tea?—

’Spect a peck o’ yellow, mellow

Pippin on the tree.