Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE LAW OF THE PERVERSE, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Where did the custom come Last Line: Fore-eating everything, from soup to pie! Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Children; Customs, Social; Food & Eating; Holidays; Thanksgiving; Childhood | ||||||||
WHERE did the custom come from, anyway -- Sending the boys to "play," at dinner-time, When we have company? What is there, pray, About the starched, unmalleable guest That, in the host's most genial interest, Finds him first favor on Thanksgiving Day Beside the steaming turkey, with its wings Akimbo over all the savory things It has been stuffed with, yet may never thus Make one poor boy's face glad and glorious! Fancy the exiled boy in the back yard, Ahungered so, that any kind of grub Were welcome, yet with face set stern and hard, Hearing the feasters' mirth and mild hubbub, And wanting to kill something with a club! -- Intuitively arguing the unjust Distinction, as he naturally must, -- The guest with all the opportunity -- The boy with all the appetite! Ah, me! So is it that, when I, a luckless guest, Am thus arraigned at banquet, I sit grim And sullen, eating nothing with a zest, -- With smirking features, yet a soul distressed, Missing the banished boy and envying him -- Ay, longing for a spatter on my vest From his deflecting spoon, and yearning for The wild swoop of his lips insatiate, or His ever-ravenous, marauding eye Fore-eating everything, from soup to pie! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THREE CHILDREN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN CHILDREN SELECTING BOOKS IN A LIBRARY by RANDALL JARRELL COME TO THE STONE ... by RANDALL JARRELL THE LOST WORLD by RANDALL JARRELL A SICK CHILD by RANDALL JARRELL CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS ON THE DEATH OF FRIENDS IN CHILDHOOD by DONALD JUSTICE THE POET AT SEVEN by DONALD JUSTICE A BOY'S MOTHER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |
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