James Whitcomb Riley (7 October 1849 - 22 July 1916 / Greenfield, Indiana)

Don't mean dog eared, rather flipped back clasp of the pages of the notebook. A great last line to the metaphoric theme of the poem as a whole

He has read between the lines of the marks on the boys body, the toe mail is floppy back like an open clasp on the loose pages of a notebook. I think it is a great last line in the metaphoric feel of the poem as a whole!

This child has nothing to do with pocket books. A pocket book is the possession of a well-off conventional citizen. A pocket book contains the name, address and telephone number of the owner and money, perhaps a picture of the wife and children, and, above all, money. A silly pointless metaphor which cannot be defended. A pulled back nail is savage, untamed, careless of everything a pocket book indicates. It is interesting that most people who comment on this site cannot bring themselves to comment adversely about a poem.

To the clasp of an old pocket book. Childhood scars do make the best event recorders. but we cant live like that forever. And how lofty of Riley to remind us of this. And which is better, a pocketboook or pulled back toenails. lol. :)

I might have said this before but the old pocket book metaphor seems entirely out of place in a picture of this Huckleberry Finn.

In this poem, we feel the poet and the boy are from two different world. Through his depiction of this coarse, happy boy, we can feel the poet's personality: passimistic, elegant, worried...He can't understand the mind of this kind of people who are simple and happy. He appreciate them yet is a little bit jealous of them. In the end of the poem, the boy's toe-nail is knocked back, I think the poet want to say, a person with a simple mind is happy indeed, but his would cause you trouble, makes you unfortunate.

Poet feels envious at the sight of a boy's joy despite many drawbacks on him including the nail knocked back of his toe like an old pocket book! Indeed joy has no connection with wealth or knowledge in the world except pure heart to enjoy and wonder at the things of nature!

it just takes, a smile of a child, to shoot all my pain away..
But here Iam not able to understand,
Why the Poet is envious?

It just takes, a smile of a child, to shoot all my pain away..
But I am not able to understand why the poet is 'envious'

Let me pose this question - When is a metaphor NOT a metaphor?

A metaphor is NOT a metaphor when it is in fact a simile!

Both 'metaphor' and 'simile' are figures of speech. A metaphor is an implied analogy which imaginatively identifies one object with another. A simile is a fgure of speech in which a similarity between two objects is directly expressed, as in James Whitcomb Riley's
'... his big toe-nail knocked back
Like unto the clasp of an old pocketbook.'
One doesn't read a POCKETBOOK (as Linda Terrell says) , one keeps loose change and stuff in it for safekeeping and convenience! Most similes are introduced by AS or LIKE. Please read lines 13 and 14 closely. Strike me dead if the preposition that introduces the explicit comparison of a CLASP (a brass clip) with the Barefoot Boy's flapping big toe-nail as he ambles along the path is part and parcel of the image that makes up the simile.