Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AT NINETY IN THE SHADE by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: HOT WEATHER? YES; BUT REALLY NOT
Last Line: COMPARED WITH WEATHER TWICE AS HOT!
Subject(s): HEAT; SUMMER; WEATHER;
HOT weather? Yes; but really not,
Compared with weather twice as hot.
Find comfort, then, in arguing thus,
And you'll pull through victorious! --
For instance, while you gasp and pant
And try to cool yourself -- and can't --
With soda, cream and lemonade,
The heat at ninety in the shade, --
Just calmly sit and ponder o'er
These same degrees, with ninety more
On top of them, and so concede
The weather now is cool indeed!
Think -- as the perspiration dews
Your fevered brow, and seems to ooze
From out the ends of every hair --
Whole floods of it, with floods to spare --
Think, I repeat, the while the sweat
Pours down your spine -- how hotter yet
Just ninety @3more@1 degrees would be,
And bear @3this@1 ninety patiently!
Think -- as you mop your brow and hair,
With sticky feelings everywhere --
How ninety more degrees increase
Of heat like this would start the grease;
Or, think, as you exhausted stand,
A wilted "palm-leaf" in each hand --
When the thermometer has done
With ease the lap of ninety-one;
O think, I say, what heat might do
At one hundred and eighty-two --
Just twice the heat you now declare,
Complainingly, is hard to bear.
Or, as you watch the mercury
Mount, still elate, one more degree,
And doff your collar and cravat,
And rig a sponge up in your hat,
And ask Tom, Harry, Dick or Jim
If this is hot enough for him --
Consider how the sun would pour
At one hundred and eighty-four --
Just twice the heat that seems to be
Affecting you unpleasantly,
The very hour that you might find
As cool as dew, were you inclined.
But why proceed when none will heed
Advice apportioned to the need?
Hot weather? Yes; but really not,
Compared with weather twice as hot!



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