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Plantation echoes

Chapter 30: SAMBO’S RAIN PHILOSOPHY.
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About This Book

A short collection of poems written in a period phonetic dialect that evokes rural plantation life and folk-song rhythms. The pieces range from playful and humorous to plaintive and reflective, depicting work, home, music, seasonal change, and communal gatherings through repetition, colloquial idiom, and musical cadence. Many poems adopt a performative voice and narrative vignette form to capture local speech and sentiment. Several passages employ slang and stereotyped language rooted in their historical moment, which modern readers may find offensive.

SAMBO’S RAIN PHILOSOPHY.

Whut’s de use o’ raisin’
’Bout de weddah, cain?
Kase dey’s wid de sunshine
Mixed in clouds an’ rain;
Jes’ ez well be lafin’,
’Joicin’ in yo’ soul.
Frettin’ an’ er stewin’
Makes yo’ gray an’ ol’.
Mussen’ ’spec’ to allus
Git things jes’ yo’ way.
Keep yo’ eye kock’d open
On er beddah day.
Learn to ’cep’ de weddah
Ez de Lawd control,
In time will be shinin’
Sunshine bright an’ gold.
Lawd am boun’ to sen’ de
Changes now an’ den,
Kaze He knows whut’s beddah
Fo’ yo’ in de en’.
Fus’ He sends de sunshine,
Nex’ He sends de rain,
To gibb life an’ viggah
To de gol’en grain.
It’s de rainy weddah,
Buds de flowahs out,
Makes de wattahmilluns
An’ de ’tayters sprout;
It’s de rainy weddah
Makes de fahmahs shout;
Drives erway de famine,
Drives erway de drout.