SOURCE: Robertson, David. “Re-Forming Frontier Values: The Dialect Poetry of James Whitcomb Riley.” Thalia: Studies in Literary Humor 19, nos. 1-2 (1999): 14-27.

In the following essay, Robertson provides close readings of “The Frost is on the Punkin,” “Rubáiyát of Doc Sifers,” and “The Good, Old-Fashioned People” to show how Riley uses character and warmth to evoke a comfortable humor that is filled with common-sense aphorisms.

James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) was not a great poet. Indeed, he is almost forgotten today. At the turn of the century, however, he was one of the most popular poets, if not the most popular poet, in America.¹ In his own lifetime he was a literary phenomenon. Between the years 1881 and 1893, Riley toured all over the United States giving recitations of his poems and sharing the stage with such fellow humorists as Bill Nye and Mark Twain. His popularity may be judged...