James Whitcomb Riley

The Fishin' Party

Dialect spelling

Riley writes in Hoosier dialect—Indiana rural speech. 'Wunst' (once), 'crick' (creek), 'ist' (just). This is a child narrator's voice, not Riley's own.

{{drop initial|W}}UNST we went a-fishin' - Me
An' my Pa an' Ma, all three
When they wuz a picnic, 'way
Out to Hanch's Woods, one day.
An' they wuz a crick out there,
Where the fishes is, an' where
Little boys `taint big an' strong

The warning

The adults know something the kid doesn't yet—this creek is dangerous for small children. Sets up the tension between child's excitement and parents' reluctance.

Better have their folks along!
My Pa he ist fished an' fished!
An' my Ma she said she wished
Me an' her was home; an' Pa
Said he wished so worse'n Ma.

Fishing silence rule

Pa's exaggerated insistence on silence ('ef you talk, er say / Anything, er sneeze, er play') suggests he's making excuses for not catching fish. The kid believes him completely.

Pa said ef you talk, er say
Anything, er sneeze, er play
Hain't no fish, alive er dead,
Ever go' to bite! he said.
Purt' nigh dark in town when we
Got back home; an' Ma, says she,
Now she'll have a fish for shore!
An' she buyed one at the store.

The store-bought fish

Ma buys a fish to save face after the failed fishing trip. 'Now she'll have a fish for shore' shows her determination to salvage something from the day.

Nen at supper Pa he won't
Eat no fish, an' says, he don't
Like 'em - An' he pounded me

Pa's humiliation

Pa won't eat the fish because it's proof he failed. When the kid chokes—probably laughing at the irony—Pa hits him to shut him up. The appeal to Ma is the punchline.

When I choked!...Ma, didn't he?
Source Wikipedia Poetry Foundation

Reading Notes

Riley's Hoosier Dialect Poems

James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) was known as the 'Hoosier Poet,' famous for writing in Indiana rural dialect. This wasn't condescension—Riley grew up in small-town Indiana and performed these poems in dialect on the lecture circuit, where they made him one of America's best-paid poets in the 1890s.

The child narrator here uses consistent Hoosier pronunciations: 'wunst' (once), 'crick' (creek), 'ist' (just), 'nen' (then), 'purt' nigh' (pretty near). Notice 'buyed' instead of 'bought'—this is how a child learning language might regularize an irregular verb. Riley's ear for speech patterns makes the voice credible.

The dialect does real work here. A child telling this story in standard English would sound fake. The grammatical 'errors' and phonetic spellings make you hear a specific kid from a specific place, which makes the family dynamics hit harder.

The Masculinity Trap

This is a poem about male pride and its casualties. Pa insists on fishing despite Ma's clear desire to leave (>"my Ma she said she wished / Me an' her was home"). He needs to prove he can catch fish, and his authority depends on the child believing his excuses about silence.

When they return 'purt' nigh dark' with nothing, Ma takes action—she buys a fish at the store 'for shore' (for sure). This is both practical (they need dinner) and face-saving, but it humiliates Pa by highlighting his failure.

Pa's response reveals the whole power structure: he 'won't / Eat no fish' because eating it would mean accepting defeat. When the child chokes—the poem leaves it ambiguous whether from food or suppressed laughter—Pa 'pounded me' to silence the witness to his humiliation. The final appeal to Ma (>"Ma, didn't he?") turns her into both referee and fellow victim.

Riley lets the child narrator tell this without understanding it. The kid thinks the poem is about a fishing trip. We see it's about a man taking out his shame on his family.