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Plantation echoes

Chapter 5: SEEMS DEY’S NO PLACE.
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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.

SEEMS DEY’S NO PLACE.

Well er coon kin go to kollege
Git his head chucked full o’ knowledge,
Till he knows ez much ez Solomon de wise.
He kin study an’ summize,
Count de stars up in de skies,
Seems dey’s no place
Fo’ de eddeekayted coon.
Tawk erbout yo’ eddeekayshun
Gittin’ in de cullahd nayshun,
Gittin’ “lighten” in de head an’ sich ez dat,
Yo’ kin larn sah, till yo’ hat
On yo’ head woan’ fit exzac’,
Seems dey’s no place
Fo’ de eddeekayted coon.
Eddeekayshun am all right
Ef er coon kin git er sight
’Stead o’ makin’ bread an’ buttah by de hoe,
He kood entah any do’
Whah he’s qualified to go.
Seems dey’s no place
Fo’ de eddeekayted coon.
He doan’ allus want to hoe,
He wood like er little sho,
Fo’ to git er little sweetness out o’ life;
He has had er worl’ o’ strife,
Allus struck by trouble’s knife.
Seems dey’s no place
Fo’ de eddeekayted coon.
All de coons kin cut dey pranks
Fo’ to git into de banks,
Wid de white fo’ks fo’ to handle wid dey cash
Dat wood sorter spile de hash,
Make er fraycus an’ er clash.
Seems dey’s no place
Fo’ de eddeekayted coon.
All de coons kin go to Yale,
Larn Greek, Latin, by de bale,
Larn to numbah all de hyahs up in dey head;
Dey may read dis thing wid dread,
Nufin’ else kin dey be said.
Seems dey’s no place
Fo’ de eddeekayted coon.
Ez I saunter ’roun’ de town,
An’ I skim mah eyes eroun’,
Whah de white fo’ks am in business ebbry where,
Yo’ kain’t find er coon in dare
Wid de white fo’ks sellin’ ware.
Seems dey’s no place
Fo’ de eddeekayted coon.