13 NO BOY KNOWS

There are many things that boys may know —

Why this and that are thus and so,

Who made the world in the dark and lit

The great sun up to lighten it;

Boys know new things every day —

When they study, or when they play,

When they idle, or sow and reap —

But no boy knows when he goes to sleep.

Boys who listen—or should at least —

May know that the round old earth rolls east,

And know that the ice and the snow and the rain —

Ever repeating their parts again —

Are all just water, and the sunbeams first

Sip from the earth in their endless thirst,

And pour again till the low streams leap —

But no boy knows when he goes to sleep.

A boy may know what a long, glad while

It has been to him since the dawn’s first smile,

When forth he fared in the realm divine

Of brook-laced woodland and spun-sunshine;

He may know each call of his truant mates,

And the paths they went—and the pasture-gates

Of the ’cross-lots home through the dusk so deep

But no boy knows when he goes to sleep.

Oh, I have followed me, o’er and o’er,

From the fragrant drowse on the parlor floor

To the pleading voice of the mother when

I even doubted I heard it then —

To the sense of a kiss, and a moonlit room,

And dewy odors of locust bloom —

A sweet white cot—and a cricket’s cheep —

But no boy knows when he goes to sleep.

( James Whitcomb Riley )

idle : not moving, being lazy

sip : to take a small drink

dusk : sundown

Answer the following questions.

1)What does the first stanza tell you the boys may know

2) What things are mentioned in the second stanza that boys may know?

3)What do the sunbeams do with the water which they “sip” from the earth?

4) Why do you think the poet speaks of dawn as if it were a person?

5) Has your mother ever pleaded with you when you did not want to hear her?