Laury's Lullaby by Payson Sibley Wild
Two farmhands cutting wheat and road-grading pause at evening to listen as Laury sings her baby Willy a lullaby, telling him the whip-poor-will, screech-owl, and tree-frogs needn't disturb his sleep, and picturing a bed of milkweed down and thistledown where the "tralaloo" bird sings. The next morning Bill teases the narrator about staying up past three listening, which the dew-soaked clothes confirm.
By Payson Sibley Wild · First published 1869 · Genre: Verse Poetry, Dialect Poetry, Pastoral Literature · 458 words
First lines
All day I'd b'en a-cuttin' wheat / In the drippin'est kind o' heat, / While Bill he'd drug the road right smart / An' hed made what he called a start / Out on the forty west the silos / (On the road leadin' down to Milo's). / We both was watchin' th' evenin' star, / Sort o' smokin' an' dozin' thar, / When Laury's voice begun ter croon / With the follerin' drowsy toon:
_Sleep O, Willy bright! / The whip-poor-will's pleadin', / But mommy ain't heedin', / Fer Willy aint needin' / No beatin' ternight._
Similar titles
- The Old Gray Fox by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Late In The Nicht In Bed I Lay by Robert Louis Stevenson
- My House I Say But Hark To The Sunny Doves by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Baby Eva by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
- The Spring Call by Thomas Hardy
- The Jolly Goss Hawk by Sabine Baring Gould
Genres
- Verse Poetry — The work is fundamentally constructed as poetry with consistent rhyme scheme and metrical verse structure throughout the narrative.
- Dialect Poetry — The extensive use of phonetic rural dialect spelling and vernacular speech patterns is a defining stylistic characteristic that shapes the entire voice and authenticity of the piece.
- Pastoral Literature — The work idealizes rural agricultural life, featuring pastoral imagery of nature and farm settings with a romanticized view of rural existence and tradition.
- Domestic Fiction — Centers on intimate domestic scenes of motherhood, family relationships, and the tender bond between parent and child in the home setting.
Tags
lullaby · motherhood · infant · sleep · comfort · childhood · farm · rural · nature · birds · evening · pastoral
What this Textopian page supports
Laury's Lullaby is listed on Textopian as a short story by Payson Sibley Wild, dated 1869 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: 1869 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Verse Poetry, Dialect Poetry, Pastoral Literature, Domestic Fiction, Narrative Poetry
- Length: 458 words
- Structure: 1 section, 8 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Laury's Lullaby by Payson Sibley Wild
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph