Home
Fictions/Novels
Short Stories
Poems
Essays
Plays
Nonfictions
 
Authors
All Titles
 






In Association with Amazon.com

Home > Authors Index > Browse all available works of James Whitcomb Riley > Text of As My Uncle Used To Say

A poem by James Whitcomb Riley

As My Uncle Used To Say

________________________________________________
Title:     As My Uncle Used To Say
Author: James Whitcomb Riley [More Titles by Riley]

I've thought a power on men and things,
As my uncle ust to say,--
And ef folks don't work as they pray, i jings!
W'y, they ain't no use to pray!
Ef you want somepin', and jes dead-set
A-pleadin' fer it with both eyes wet,
And _tears_ won't bring it, w'y, you try _sweat_,
As my uncle ust to say.

They's some don't know their A, B, C's,
As my uncle ust to say,
And yit don't waste no candle-grease,
Ner whistle their lives away!
But ef they can't write no book, ner rhyme
No singin' song fer to last all time,
They can blaze the way fer the march sublime,
As my uncle ust to say.

Whoever's Foreman of all things here,
As my uncle ust to say,
He knows each job 'at we're best fit fer,
And our round-up, night and day:
And a-sizin' _His_ work, east and west,
And north and south, and worst and best.
I ain't got nothin' to suggest,
As my uncle ust to say.


[The end]
James Whitcomb Riley's poem: As My Uncle Used To Say

________________________________________________



GO TO TOP OF SCREEN