To tell the truth, each piece he read Set up a jingle in my head That bumped and thumped and roared about, Then on a sudden just crept out, Gently and slowly at the start, Then made a bee-line for my heart. And more than once I thought maybe His charming Hoosier poetry Would be a guide to lead me over To the Elysian fields of clover. To find fault with his worst or best Would be like finding fault with rest After a fellow has been in The dirt and dust up to his chin, And bathed and stretched beneath the trees Whose branches fairly hug the breeze. In these hackneyed and sordid days, When censure thorns the bud of praise And many think they ought not to Give genius half its honest due, And never fail to bombard it With silly quips and shallow wit, I like to just go hunt it up And sup and sip and sip and sup; And then I like to speak my praise In honest thought and simple phrase, And let the giver know that I Delight in him and tell him why, And not go wavering to and fro But just come out and tell him so. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SORROW SINGERS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ULTIMA THULE: MY CATHEDRAL by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE BIGLOW PAPERS: 3. WHAT MR. ROBINSON THINKS by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL MY SOLITUDE by JAMES R. AGGELES MY LITTLE GARDEN by GWENDOLEN ALLEN PENETRALIA by ELFRIDA DE RENNE BARROW WRITTEN FOR A LADY'S COMMON-PLACE BOOK by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |