The Name of Peter White

“I’d like to know the reason why

     The things some people say

Are quoted in the magazines

     An’ papers ev’ry day,

While things I say are never kept,

     An’ mine are jest ez bright

Ez what them other fellers say,”

     Said Uncle Peter White.

“Take Shakespeare, Drummond, Socrates,

     The papers ev’ry day

Hev lines all scartered here an’ there

     That them wise fellers say.

To me they don’t seem special bright,

     No brighter’n some of mine,

An’ yit you’ll never see my name

     Hitched to a single line.

“I don’t know why it is, I mum,

     That Spencer, Pope an’ Poe

An’ half a hundred other chaps

     Are allus quoted so.

I make wise sayin’s ev’ry day,

     To me they’re special bright;

An’ yet you never see nowheres

     The name uv Peter White.

“There’s something wrong somewhere, I know,

     They’ve simply cornered fame;

Them bits uv wisdom are attached

     To some more favored name.

But I hev hopes the time will come,

     The papers will be bright

Enough to print the things I’ve said,

     An’ sign the name uv White.

June 28, ’09