"The Little Old Poem That Nobody Reads" James Whitcomb Riley The little old poem that nobody reads Blooms in a crowded space, Like a ground-vine blossom, so low in the weeds That nobody sees its face-- Unless, perchance, the reader's eye Stares through a yawn, and hurries by, For no one wants, or loves, or heeds, The little old poem that nobody reads. The little old poem that nobody reads Was written--where?--and when? Maybe a hand of goodly deeds Thrilled as it held the pen: Maybe the fountain whence it came Was a heart brimmed o'er with tears of shame, And maybe its creed is the worst of creeds-- The little old poem that nobody reads. But, little old poem that nobody reads, Holding you here above The wound of a heart that warmly bleeds For all that knows not love, I well believe if the old World knew As dear a friend as I find in you, That friend would tell it that all it needs Is the little old poem that nobody reads. | Sometimes we all just want to return to those olden days and emotions that made our childhood’s magical, and James Whitcomb Riley’s writing does just that. He was effectively captured all the magic of childhood, it’s innocence and adventure, wonder and altruism in the format of poetry that was both light-hearted and meaningful. He was loved by masses of youths both inside his home country of the United States and around the globe, from his origin state of Indiana where he developed his country heart and soul, a dialect which is prevalent throughout his poetry. His stately two-storey, red brick childhood home with bright green shutters is now the shrine operated by Greenfield's Riley Old Home Society open to visitors from all around the world. Often called the “Hoosier Poet,” for his proud affiliation with his state, and many poems written in celebration of it. Riley was also called America’s “Children’s Poet,” for his “uncomplicated, sentimental, and humorous" style, the old-fashioned allure of writing carries an all American reminiscence of more elemental ages past. This bittersweet style proved incredibly popular in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when people didn’t seem to be able to advance fast enough, with rapidly growing industries and sprawling cities. Some claimed that Riley’s appeal was synthetic, marking him as a poet who "achieved mass appeal partly due to his canny sense of marketing and publicity." However, whether you feel this poet is wily or genuine he is charismatic and clever either way, and once the wealthiest poet of his age, millions of his poems are still printed today. |
Born on October 7, 1849 in a log cabin in the tiny little village of Greenville, hidden far out and away, between the Indiana farmland and primordial oak and poplar forests. Riley was born to a father who worked as a frontier lawyer and politician, the man had named Riley after the Indiana governor James Whitcomb, but he never inherited his father’s studious nature or focus. Instead, Riley took after his mother, a traditional country woman she baked in a hearth oven, wrote poetry and kept a rowdy bunch of children in check. As child Riley was lanky and introverted, known best for his clever mind and practical jokes. Riley’s scatterbrained and foolish tendencies kept him from ever mastering history or arithmetic. It went as far as one year when an american history teacher asked him where Christopher Columbus went on his second voyage, he answered he didn’t know where he went on the first one prompting his teacher to remark disparately, "He doesn't know which is more -twice ten or twice eternity." leading his parents to doubt his future prospects.
The most famous of Riley’s poem recount the nostalgic adventures of his childhood in Greenfield, from traveling dirt country roads "Out to Old Aunt Mary's." with his brother, or the hired hand who informed him of the "Squidgicum-Squees 'at swappers themselves." in "The Raggedy Man,". Riley had grown up in an amalgamation of American ethnicities and dialects from his own Hoosier Deutsch parents whose particular dialect he honored in "Dot Leedle Boy of Mine.". He became known for his talent at capturing the essential elements and expression of the various dialects he heard and was sometimes called a “dialect singer” because of this. One particular child who inspired the character “Orphant Annie,” told him tales of “wonks” who lived in the ground and only came out at night when they would take on a myriad of forms both frightening and familiar, these goblins who could change their appearance at will and fairies, who lived under the stairs, making everything from snowflakes to flower petals, these were stories Riley would never forget throughout his entire life.
Faithfully, if foolishly, Riley tried to follow in his father’s lawyer footsteps but he could simply not apply himself. Riley’s imaginative mind was simply too full of romance and comedy from his infatuation with Nellie Millikan to the various activities of his hometown youth. So instead of case files, Riley’s mind was filled with the lyrics to "An Old Sweetheart of Mine." and instead of cooped up in a court, he soon found himself wondering the American Middle West as a sign painter. But he could never stay in one occupation for long from musical advertisement for medicine hawkers, to impressions for a traveling drama group. As it happened entertainment came naturally to Riley, and his first published poems, written for a newspaper, quickly spread through the press the whole country across. But Riley doubted his poems would ever have much standing in comparison to those authors of the New Englander or other East Coast poets, the public would simply never take a midwest “Hoosier” poet seriously. To prove his point, Riley published his poem "Leonainie" under the name of the widely proclaimed Edgar Allen Poe, and it was received with glorious pomp by newspapers across the country. The matter was driven home when Riley was exposed himself as the true author. In this time Riley had mastered the theatrical performance of his poetry for audiences, and his popularity had grown in specific from his acts with the Lyceum Circuit, whom traveled across the United States through every large metropolis, exposing Riley’s poetic recollections of his “hoosier” youth to the opinions of the masses.
From then onwards the demand for Riley’s work only grew, and it began to be reproduced in collections complete with beautiful illustrations attracting new international acclaim. Soon, to his own great surprise, Riley became the wealthiest writer of his time, and began to development nicknames from the masses both the “Hoosier Poet” and America’s “Children’s Poet”. His poetry was often a reflection of his own childhood in Greenfield, but also of the youth within us all. While is his fifties Riley suffered a stroke that paralyzed his left side, and soon after returning one final time to Greenfield for the Funeral of a childhood friend, Almond Keefer, Riley himself died of another stroke on July 22nd 1916. Ironically, after having stated "It will not be long until the rest of the old crowd will be sleeping beside him." at his friend’s funeral. Mourned by the everyone from Woodrow Wilson to every child of the past several decades, Riley is still remembered for the jubilation and patriotic hope of his poetry, as warm and comforting as home-baked apple pie.
“The Little Old Poem That Nobody Read,” is a piece of most unusual rhythmic and syllabic structure, composed of three stanzas all containing a different number of lines from nine in the first stanza, to eleven in the second and twelve in the third. Every line has a subtly unique syllable poetic structure from his first stanza which consists of nine syllables to six for the next two lines, then five and six again then eight for three lines and finishing up with nine again this structure cannot be identified as any particular style and though it is written in iambic feet, there is no pentameter and his form is purely free verse. The rhythmic structure is similarly bizarre with intriguing format of ABCAB DDEE for the first stanza, but then Riley switches arrangement entirely in the second paragraph to ABABCDCDEFEFGG, and his final stanza is just as unfamiliar with ABCABCDDEFGF. The strange spontaneous pattern of Riley’s poem is what allows it to have such an open audience it is multifaceted enough to entertain all ages of children and occupies them with impulsive rhythm. His poetry may not necessarily have a strict organization but it does contain beautiful child-like, whimsical fluency. Riley’s light-hearted characterization of a poem is simply delightful. He personifies a work that is published besides masses yet does not stand out, using zoomorphic personification, “Blooms in a crowded space,” Riley then extends it into a simile “Like a ground-vine blossom, so low in the weeds, that nobody sees its face-” this symbolizes being born amidst someone/something worthless(i.e. weeds) and being so deeply hidden by them that it is impossible to discern an independent thought. Then Riley uses teasing language to emphasize this hopelessness,
“Unless, perchance, the reader's eye
Stares through a yawn, and hurries by,
For no one wants, or loves, or heeds,”
Riley refers to the attention the poem receives as being only superficial, as in even if it is noted, cited or published it will be done so, unintentionally, looked over as just another dull, repetitive piece of the whole. Riley, then seems to make an analogies to the begins of his own poetry, as a poet from the midwest where poetry was nowhere near the predominant form of entertainment. So it was very difficult for poets from these areas to gain renown, as poems would circulate through the poet's own little exclusive coteries, and only those included were read. Riley’s poetry was the outsider the poetry that's no one reads, so no one bothers to spend time over it should they see it, for why should you bother with something when no one else does? And if no one sees it than no one will read it and the poor poem is caught in the vicious cycle of unpopularity. The first stanza ends with a repeat of the first line to encourage, and re-establish the subject of the poem. “The little old poem that nobody reads.” This transitions the poem into the second stanza with another repeat of the title line, then Riley goes on to argue how no one ever bother with the details of such poems, “Was written--where?--and when?” even if they are obvious and simple, no matter how wonderful the intentions behind the composition, “Maybe a hand of goodly deeds,” or the enthusiasm of the author, “Thrilled as it held the pen:” or the metaphorical fountain of imagination from that birthed them, signifying the source of the author’s creative flow, it matters not if the poem was heartfelt, “Was a heart brimmed o'er with tears of shame,” for even if the poem was malicious, “And maybe its creed is the worst of creeds--” because no ever bothered to read it, no one will ever truly know. And so ends the second stanza again with “The little old poem that nobody reads.”
The third stanza however is a little different, “The” is replaced with “But” in the first line, and a fresh tone is assumed one of hope and loyalty as opposed to inevitable down trodden ness of the first two stanzas. Here the “poem” becomes the only cure for a broken heart,
“Holding you here above
The wound of a heart that warmly bleeds
For all that knows not love,”
Stating that any friend would recommend the little poem’s comfort, that is if they only knew,
“I well believe if the old World knew
As dear a friend as I find in you,
That friend would tell it that all it needs
Is the little old poem that nobody reads.”
Riley’s poem speaks of how easily swayed people can be by their own masses and how difficult it can be find individual thought amongst them, but also how precious these original thoughts are.
James Whitcomb Riley was a classic author of children’s poetry and one of the most well-acclaimed Patriots of Indiana, his intimate country style was could be laidback, rolicking, humourous and even boisterous in turn. Though some critiqued him as shallow or “cliched”, criticizing him for a lack of irony or apparently “narrow emotional range”, an even greater many loved him for the happiness he could discern in all things and the joy he brought to everyday life. His poems were "exuberant, performative, and often display Riley's penchant for using humorous characterization, repetition, and dialect to make his poetry accessible to a wide-ranging audience." according to Gale Cengage on pages 210-212 of “Poetry Criticism,” the 2003 edition, edited by David Galens. And besides that fact that he avoided serious subject matter, he did address it if not often or exultantly, in such works as "Little Mandy's Christmas-Tree", "The Absence of Little Wesley", and "The Happy Little Cripple" with dark, realistic subjects such as poverty, the death of a child, and disabilities. These poems like many of his works for children were filled with moral messages, like the fair and kindly treatment of those less fortunate than you, these same morals infiltrated his writing for children now sometimes in the form of warnings. Riley blamed industrialization and urbanization for what appeared to him to be a decrease in the purity and honesty of children, and in his poetry he aimed to create heroes from characters that retained these traits. Riley attempted to change the course of the world one child at a time, and for a period he had a very good shot at it.