by Anne Collins
The greatest man
Language: English
My teacher said us boys should write about some great man, so I thought last night 'n thought about heroes and men that had done great things, 'n then I got to thinkin' 'bout my pa; he ain't a hero 'r anything but pshaw! Say! He can ride the wildest hoss 'n find minners near the moss down by the creek; 'n he can swim 'n fish, we ketched five new lights, me 'n him! Dad's some hunter too - oh, my! Miss Molly Cottontail sure does fly when he tromps through the fields 'n brush! (Dad won't kill a lark 'r thrush.) Once when I was sick 'n though his hands were rough he rubbed the pain right out. "That's the stuff!" he said when I winked back the tears. He never cried but once 'n that was when my mother died. There're lots o' great men: George Washinton 'n Lee, but Dad's got 'em all beat holler, seems to me!
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Charles Edward Ives (1874 - 1954), "The greatest man", 1921. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 20
Word count: 162