James Whitcomb Riley

Nothin' to Say (Riley)

{{Drop initial|N}}OTHIN' to say, my daughter! Nothin' at all to say!

Dialect spelling

Riley's phonetic spelling ('giner'ly,' 'gyrl,' 'air') represents rural Indiana speech. The father's voice is working-class, uneducated—crucial for understanding his emotional restraint.

Gyrls that's in love, I've noticed, giner'ly has their way!
Yer mother did, afore you, when her folks objected to me -
Yit here I am and here you air! and yer mother - where is she?

The missing mother

The dash after 'yer mother' creates a pause before 'where is she?'—she's dead. This revelation reframes everything he's said before it.

You look lots like yer mother; purty much same in size;
And about the same complected; and favor about the eyes:
Like her, too, about livin' here, because she couldn't stay;
It'll `most seem like you was dead like her! - but I hain't got nothin' to say!

Inheritance list

A Bible and earrings—that's all the mother left. The specificity (name written in the Bible, waiting until she's of age) shows how carefully he's preserved these small treasures.

She left you her little Bible -writ yer name acrost the page -
And left her ear-bobs fer you, ef ever you come of age;
I've alluz kep' `em and gyuarded 'em, but ef yer goin' away -
Nothin' to say, my daughter! Nothin' at all to say!
You don't rickollect her, I reckon? No: you wasn't a year old then!
And now yer - how old air you? W'y child, not "twenty"! When?
And yer nex' birthday's in Aprile? and you want to git married that day?
I wisht yer mother was livin'! - but I hain't got nothin' to say!
Twenty year! and as good a gyrl as parent ever found!
There's a straw ketched on to yer dress there - I'll bresh it off - turn round.

The straw

He notices a piece of straw on her dress and brushes it off—a tiny gesture of fatherly care embedded in the moment he's losing her.

Parenthetical confession

The parentheses hide his own elopement story—he and his wife also ran away to marry when she was twenty. He's watching history repeat itself.

(Her mother was jes' twenty when us two run away.)
Nothin' to say, my daughter! Nothin' at all to say!
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

The Refrain's Real Meaning

The father keeps saying he has 'nothin' to say,' but the poem is 20 lines of him talking. This contradiction is the point. He's a working-class man who lacks the vocabulary or social permission to express emotion directly, so he talks around his feelings—reminiscing, giving permission, offering small pieces of advice—while insisting he has nothing to say.

The refrain shifts meaning as the poem progresses. First it's defensive ('girls in love get their way anyway'). Then it becomes grief ('it'll most seem like you was dead like her'). By the end, it's acceptance—he's giving his blessing by *not* saying what he could say to stop her. His silence is consent.

Riley's dialect writing isn't condescending—it's documentary. He captures how inarticulate love can be, especially across class and gender lines. The father can't say 'I'll miss you' or 'I'm afraid of losing you too,' so instead he brushes straw off her dress.

History Repeating

The poem's central irony: the father eloped with his wife against her parents' wishes when she was twenty. Now his daughter wants to marry at twenty, and he can't object without being a hypocrite. The parenthetical >(Her mother was jes' twenty when us two run away.)< is the poem's emotional hinge—he's trapped by his own history.

But there's a darker layer. His wife died young, leaving him to raise their daughter alone. When he says >It'll `most seem like you was dead like her!< he's not being dramatic—he's describing his actual experience. His wife left home to marry him and (from her parents' perspective) might as well have died. Now his daughter is doing the same thing, and he'll be alone again.

The Bible and earrings are the only physical connection between mother and daughter. He's kept them safe for twenty years, waiting for this moment. Giving them to her is both a blessing and a goodbye—she's getting her inheritance because she's leaving, just like her mother did.