Almost everyone has made the sort of list that George Burnett Devine builds in "Like and Likewise": a cheerful inventory of what we enjoy, with a small, awkward exception tucked at the end. His poem takes that habit and turns it into a portrait of human nature. The speaker uses "we" throughout, so the target is never one lazy individual but the whole crowd, the reader included. The central idea is simple and uncomfortable: people love the rewards of life but resent the responsibilities that make those rewards possible.
The structure is what makes the joke work. Each of the first four stanzas follows the same plan. The first two lines are pure pleasure, with "the lovely landscape," "the rolling hills," "the sweetest music." The last two lines turn on a "but." We like money, "but we do not like to work." We like pleasures, "but we do not like to think." The repetition of "We like" at the start of nearly every line builds a lulling, sing-song rhythm, and the "but" arrives like a pebble in the shoe. By the second stanza the reader is waiting for the turn, and the poem rewards that expectation every time. It is a bit like a stand-up comedian's rule of three, stretched across four verses.
The sound of the poem is deliberately light. The lines are short, the beat is bouncy, and the rhyme scheme is plain: in each stanza only the second and fourth lines rhyme ("hills" and "bills," "shirk" and "work," "drink" and "think," "sleep" and "weep"). That loose pattern suits the casual voice, which sounds like someone chatting on a porch. Notice, too, how the rhyme words often carry the sting. "Bills," "work," "think" and "weep" are all things we would rather avoid, and the poem places them exactly where the ear lands hardest. Even the language is relaxed, with dropped consonants in "a-fishin'" and the verbs "loaf" and "shirk," which sound slightly guilty. The mild exclamation "by gosh" at the end completes the folksy tone.
The pairs themselves are carefully chosen, and they escalate in a way that rewards a closer look. The first stanza sets nature's beauty against the dull duty of paying bills. The second contrasts leisure with labour. The third moves from physical pleasure to mental effort, and "we do not like to think" is the sharpest jab in the poem, because it implies that the speaker's whole group avoids the very faculty that would let them notice their own hypocrisy. The fourth stanza is gentler but just as telling. Reading the papers and sleeping are passive pastimes, and "laugh and chatter" against "weep" shows a wish for life to stay on the sunny side. We want comfort without cost, and feeling without sorrow.
The final stanza is where the poem earns its title. Until now the speaker has only said what "we" like. Suddenly the poem addresses "you" directly, praising "the fellow / Who is very wise, like you." The praise is flattering, but it is also a trap. Anyone who accepts the compliment is invited to join the "we," and the last line, "we're likewise too," plays on the word in the title. "Like" means to enjoy, but it also means to resemble, and "likewise" means in the same way. So the poem ends on a pun: we like the wise, and we are alike in our faults. The reader who smiled at the earlier stanzas is now caught smiling at himself.
What makes the poem worth reading is the way it disarms criticism. A lecture about laziness and short-sightedness would be easy to ignore. Devine instead includes himself and his audience in the joke, which makes the point harder to dodge. Light verse like this is often dismissed as trivial, but the form is exactly why it works: the jingling rhythm lowers our guard, and the truth slips in underneath. The poem does not scold anyone. It simply lists, with a grin, what we all want, and lets us notice what is missing from the list.