Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BY ANY OTHER NAME, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BY ANY OTHER NAME, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: First the teacher called the roll
Last Line: Nearly killed her daddy!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Schools; Strangers; Teaching & Teachers; Students


FIRST the teacher called the roll,
Clos't to the beginnin',
"Addeliney Bowersox!"
Set the school a-grinnin'.
Winter-time, and stingin' cold
When the session took up --
Cold as we all looked at her,
Though she couldn't look up!

Total stranger to us, too --
Country folks ain't allus
Nigh so shameful unpolite
As some people call us! --
But the honest facts is, then,
Addeliney Bower-
Sox's feelin's was so hurt
She cried half an hour!

My dest was acrost from hern:
Set and watched her tryin'
To p'tend she didn't keer,
And a kind o' dryin'
Up her tears with smiles -- tel I
Thought, "Well, 'Addeliney
Bowersox' is plain, but she's
Purty as a piney!"

. . . . . . .

It's be'n many of a year
Sence that most oncommon
Cur'ous name o' Bowersox
Struck me so abomin-
Nubble and outlandish-like! --
I changed it to Adde-
Liney Daubenspeck -- and that
Nearly killed her Daddy!





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