Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE MULBERRY TREE, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: O, it's many's the scenes which is dear Last Line: They go racin' acrost fer the mulberry tree. Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Dreams; Memory; Mulberry Trees; Youth; Nightmares | ||||||||
O IT'S many's the scenes which is dear to my mind As I think of my childhood so long left behind; The home of my birth, with its old puncheon-floor, And the bright morning-glorys that growed round the door; The warped clabboard roof whare the rain it run off Into streams of sweet dreams as I laid in the loft, Countin' all of the joys that was dearest to me, And a-thinkin' the most of the mulberry tree. And to-day as I dream, with both eyes wide-awake, I can see the old tree, and its limbs as they shake, And the long purple berries that rained on the ground Whare the pastur' was bald whare we trommpt it around. And again, peekin' up through the thick leafy shade, I can see the glad smiles of the friends when I strayed With my little bare feet from my own mother's knee To foller them off to the mulberry tree. Leanin' up in the forks, I can see the old rail, And the boy climbin' up it, claw, tooth, and toenail, And in fancy can hear, as he spits on his hands, The ring of his laugh and the rip of his pants. But that rail led to glory, as certin and shore As I'll never climb thare by that rout' any more -- What was all the green lauruls of Fame unto me, With my brows in the boughs of the mulberry tree! Then it's who can fergit the old mulberry tree tree That he knowed in the days when his thoughts was as free As the flutterin' wings of the birds that flew out Of the tall wavin' tops as the boys come about? O, a crowd of my memories, laughin' and gay, Is a-climbin' the fence of that pastur' to-day, And a-pantin' with joy, as us boys ust to be, They go racin' acrost fer the mulberry tree. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIATIONS: 14 by CONRAD AIKEN VARIATIONS: 18 by CONRAD AIKEN LIVE IT THROUGH by DAVID IGNATOW A DREAM OF GAMES by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE DREAM OF WAKING by RANDALL JARRELL APOLOGY FOR BAD DREAMS by ROBINSON JEFFERS GIVE YOUR WISH LIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS A BOY'S MOTHER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |
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