(@3As Mr. Francis Bret Harte might have woven it into a touching tale of a western gentleman in a red shirt.@1) Brown o' San Juan, Stranger, I'm Brown. Come up this mornin' from 'Frisco -- Be'n a-saltin' my specie-stacks down. Be'n a-knockin' around, Fer a man from San Juan, Putty consid'able frequent -- Jes' catch onter that streak o' the dawn! Right thar lies my home -- Right thar in the red -- I could slop over, stranger, in po'try -- Would spread out old Shakspoke cold dead. Stranger, you freeze to this: there ain't no kinder gin-palace, Nor no variety-show lays over a man's own rancho. Maybe it hain't no style, but the Queen in the Tower o' London, Ain't got naathin' I'd swop for that house over thar on the hill-side. Thar is my ole gal, 'n' the kids, 'n' the rest o' my live-stock; Thar my Remington hangs, and thar there's a griddle-cake br'ilin' -- For the two of us, pard -- and thar, I allow, the heavens Smile more friendly-like than on any other locality. Stranger, nowhere else I don't take no satisfaction. Gimme my ranch, 'n' them friendly old Shanghai chickens -- I brung the original pair f'm the States in eighteen-'n'-fifty -- Gimme me them and the feelin' of solid domestic comfort. Yer parding, young man -- But this landscape a kind Er flickers -- I 'low 'twuz the po'try -- I thought that my eyes hed gone blind. Take that pop from my belt! Hi, thar! -- gimme yer han' -- Or I'll kill myself -- Lizzie -- she's left me -- Gone off with a purtier man! Thar, I'll quit -- the ole gal An' the kids -- run away! I be derned! Howsomever, come in, pard -- The griddle-cake's thar, anyway. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LAMENT FOR THE MAKARIS [WHEN HE WAS SEIK] by WILLIAM DUNBAR COMFORT [TO A YOUTH THAT HAD LOST HIS LOVE] by ROBERT HERRICK THE DEATH-BED by SIEGFRIED SASSOON CONSTANTINOPLE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD FASHION; A DIALOGUE by JAMES HAY BEATTIE THE IMPROVISATORE: THE INDUCTION TO THE FIRST FYTTE by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |