The Lockerbie Book: Containing Poems Not in Dialect (Classic Reprint)

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FB&C Limited, Jun 27, 2016 - Literary Collections - 660 pages
Excerpt from The Lockerbie Book: Containing Poems Not in Dialect

The century that was then old has gone to its final reek oning, and ten full years have been recorded against its young successor During this time it has been given to Benj. F. Johnson to write much. In the fourteen volumes that now represent his collected verse, almost every poetic form finds a place, and normal English, in distinction from dialect, holds an equal authority. Yet if you say Riley to the man in the street he will reply: When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock. The poet, I am sure, has no grievance with this answer; nor is there quarrel anywhere with the fixed association of Riley's namewith his homelier form of verse. Such an alliance is as worthy as it is inevitable. His destinies are garlanded with old fashioned roses and time will judge him and reward him accordingly.

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About the author (2016)

Poet, lecturer, and journalist, Riley gained popularity with his series of poems in the Hoosier dialect written under the pseudonym "Benjamin F. Johnson, of Boone." These originally appeared in the Indianapolis Journal, where he worked from 1877 to 1885; in 1883 they were published as The Old Swimmin'-Hole and 'Leven More Poems. His most popular poems are "When the Frost is on the Punkin"' and "The Old Man and Jim." Riley went on numerous lecture tours, entertaining as an actor and humorist. Although best known for his dialect poetry---"comforting, familiar platitudes, restated in verse" (Richard Crowder)---Riley also wrote humorous sketches and other poems. He produced more than 90 volumes of popular poetry, some of which are available in reprinted editions.

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