Bill's "Risin" by Payson Sibley Wild
Bill arrives at breakfast with his right hand bandaged and swollen, barely able to eat, after suffering from a festering "risin'" that has made his fingers blue-white and cold. Despite his wife Laury's poultices and horse liniments, and his own suffering through the day and into the night, Bill refuses to go to bed, insisting he won't show a "yeller streak," and only sniffs camphor for relief. The speaker advises him to drop the soggy poultice rags for antiseptic wash and air, then leaves him looking thoroughly bedraggled. Quietly, Bill tries the wash, and the next day reports the pain much eased, feeling "good" like a greased wheel. Newly chipper, he moralizes that farmers cling too long to old notions like poultices and lotions instead of trusting "scientific facts" over "native wit" when fighting disease.
By Payson Sibley Wild · First published 1918 · Genre: Narrative Poetry, Humorous Poetry, Rural/Frontier Literature · 839 words
First lines
One mornin' Bill he took 'is chair at table, / 'N' I seen 'is right hand almos' kivered / With bandages, an' 'e wan't scassly able / Ter eat-jes' set an' kind o' shivered.
I didn't say en'thing till I hed et / 'Mos' threw my breakfas'; then I said, / "I reckin, Bill, yew better quit an' let / Us fix ye up, or go ter bed."
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Genres
- Narrative Poetry — The work is fundamentally structured as a poem that tells a complete story from beginning to end with a clear narrative arc.
- Humorous Poetry — The comedic tone permeates the entire work, using Bill's stubbornness, physical suffering, and the contrast between folk remedies and science for humorous effect.
- Rural/Frontier Literature — Set in rural America with agrarian characters, farming references, and authentic depiction of frontier and rural life practices.
- Satirical Poetry — The work satirizes superstitions and traditional folk remedies while celebrating scientific knowledge and empirical fact over inherited superstition.
Tags
Narrative poem · American dialect · Rural setting · Humorous verse · Masculine pride · Stoicism · Festering infection · Folk medicine · Scientific medicine · First-person narrative · Farmer protagonist · Agricultural community
What this Textopian page supports
Bill's "Risin" is listed on Textopian as a short story by Payson Sibley Wild, dated 1918 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Payson Sibley Wild
- Date: 1918 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Narrative Poetry, Humorous Poetry, Rural/Frontier Literature, Satirical Poetry, Vernacular Literature
- Length: 839 words
- Structure: 1 section, 16 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
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- Work identity for Bill's "Risin" by Payson Sibley Wild
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