Explore "When the Hearse Comes Back" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A thing 'at's 'bout as tryin' as a healthy man kin meet / Is some poor feller's funeral a-joggin' 'long the street: / The slow hearse and the hosses -- slow enough, to say the least, / Fer to even tax the patience of the gentleman deceased! / The low scrunch of the gravel -- and the slow grind of the wheels, -- / The low, slow go of ev'ry woe 'at ev'rybody feels! / So I ruther like the contrast when I hear the whiplash crack / A quickstep fer the hosses, / When the / Hearse / Comes / Back!
Meet it goin' to'rds the cimet'ry, you'll want to drap yer eyes -- / But ef the plumes don't fetch you, it'll ketch you otherwise -- / You'll haf to see the caskit, though you'd ort to look away / And 'conomize and save yer sighs fer any other day! / Yer sympathizin' won't wake up the sleeper from his rest -- / Yer tears won't thaw them hands o' his 'at's froze acrost his breast! / And this is why -- when airth and sky's a-gittin' blurred and black / I like the flash and hurry / When the / Hearse / Comes / Back!