James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916)
A Barefoot Boy
1A barefoot boy! I mark him at his play --
2 For May is here once more, and so is he, --
3 His dusty trousers, rolled half to the knee,
4And his bare ankles grimy, too, as they:
5Cross-hatchings of the nettle, in array
6 Of feverish stripes, hint vividly to me
7 Of woody pathways winding endlessly
8Along the creek, where even yesterday
9He plunged his shrinking body -- gasped and shook --
10 Yet called the water "warm," with never lack
11Of joy. And so, half enviously I look
12 Upon this graceless barefoot and his track, --
13 His toe stubbed -- ay, his big toe-nail knocked back
14Like unto the clasp of an old pocketbook.
Notes
5] nettle: prickly, stinging plant.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: James Whitcomb Riley, Complete Works, Memorial edn. in 10 vols. (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1916): IV, 915. PS 2700 F16 Robarts Library.
First publication date:
12
May
1883
Publication date note: Indianapolis Journal (May 12, 1883)
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: RPO 1998.
Recent editing: 2:2002/1/16
Form: sonnet
Rhyme: abbaabbacdcddc
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