Skip to content
Linespedia

A Liz Town Humorist

By James Whitcomb Riley

Topics: classic

Settin' round the stove, last night,     Down at Wess's store, was me     And Mart Strimples, Tunk, and White,     And Doc Bills, and two er three     Fellers o' the Mudsock tribe     No use tryin' to describe!     And says Doc, he says, says he,     "Talkin' 'bout good things to eat,     Ripe mushmillon's hard to beat!"     I chawed on. And Mart he 'lowed     Wortermillon beat the mush.     "Red," he says, "and juicy - Hush!     I'll jes' leave it to the crowd!"     Then a Mudsock chap, says he,     "Punkin's good enough fer me -     Punkin pies, I mean," he says,     Them beats millons! What say, Wess?     I chawed on. And Wess says, "Well,     You jes' fetch that wife of mine     All yer wortermillon-rine,     And she'll bile it down a spell -     In with sorghum, I suppose,     And what else, Lord only knows!     But I'm here to tell all hands     Them p'serves meets my demands!"     I chawed on. And White he says,     "Well, I'll jes' stand, in with Wess -     I'm no hog!" And Tunk says, "I     Guess I'll pastur' out on pie     With the Mudsock boys!" says he;     "Now what's yourn?" he says to me:     I chawed on - fer - quite a spell     Then I speaks up, slow and dry,     Jes' tobacker!" I-says-I.     And you'd ort o' heerd 'em yell!

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"Settin' round the stove, last night,..."

Exploring the themes of classic, James Whitcomb Riley delivers a powerful performance in "A Liz Town Humorist"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:James Whitcomb Riley

"Settin' round the stove, last night,..." by James Whitcomb Riley

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Writ in between the lines of his life-deed         We trace the sacred service of a heart         Answering the Divine command, in every par"

"Crowd about me, little children -         Come and cluster 'round my knee     While I tell a little story         That happened once with me."

"O the night was dark and the night was late,         And the robbers came to rob him;      And they picked the locks of his palace-gate,"

"O her beautiful eyes! they are as blue as the dew         On the violet's bloom when the morning is new,         And the light of their love"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

James Whitcomb Riley

About James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) was an American poet known as the "Hoosier Poet." His dialect poems—including "Little Orphant Annie" and "When the Frost Is on the Punkin"—celebrate rural Indiana life and childhood nostalgia.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"Writ in between the lines of his life-deed        ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.