James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) was an American poet known as the "Hoosier Poet." His dialect poems—including "Little Orphant Annie" and "When the Frost Is on the Punki…
"Writ in between the lines of his life-deed We trace the sacred service of a heart Answering the Divine command, in every par"
"Crowd about me, little children - Come and cluster 'round my knee While I tell a little story That happened once with me."
"O the night was dark and the night was late, And the robbers came to rob him; And they picked the locks of his palace-gate,"
"O her beautiful eyes! they are as blue as the dew On the violet's bloom when the morning is new, And the light of their love"
"I A good man never dies - In worthy deed and prayer And helpful hands, and honest eyes, If smiles or tears be there: W"
"It's the curiousest thing in creation, Whenever I hear that old song "Do They Miss Me at Home," I'm so bothered, My life seems as"
"Ah, Luxury! Beyond the heat And dust of town, with dangling feet, Astride the rock below the dam, In the cool shadows where the"
"When I was a little boy, long ago, And spoke of the theater as the "show," The first one that I went to see, Mother's brother i"
""Whatever the weather may be," says he-- "Whatever the weather may be It's plaze, if ye will, an' I'll say me say,-- Supposin' to-day w"
"O were I not a clod, intent On being just an earthly thing, I'd be that rare embodiment Of Heart and Spirit, Voice and Wi"
"INSCRIBED IN "TALES OF THE OCEAN" This first book that I ever knew Was read aloud to me by you - Friend of my boyhood, therefore ta"
"THE DREAMER I He was a Dreamer of the Days: Indolent as a lazy breeze Of midsummer, in idlest ways Lolling abou"
"A languid atmosphere, a lazy breeze, With labored respiration, moves the wheat From distant reaches, till the golden seas B"
"Years did I vainly seek the good Lord's grace, Prayed, fasted, and did penance dire and dread; Did kneel, with bleeding knees and rainy"
"Us-folks is purty pore - but Ma She's waitin' - two years more - tel Pa He serve his term out. Our Pa he - He's in the Peniten"
"I put by the half-written poem, While the pen, idly trailed in my hand, Writes on, "Had I words to complete it, Who'd read it, or w"
"Where do you go when you go to sleep, Little Boy! Little Boy! where? 'Way - 'way in where's Little Bo-Peep, And Little Boy Blue, a"
"Gracie wuz allus a careless tot; But Gracie dearly loved her doll, An' played wiv it on the winder-sill 'Way up-stairs,"
"Friends, my heart is half aweary Of its happiness to-night: Though your songs are gay and cheery, And your spirits feather-"
"Some peoples thinks they ain't no Fairies now No more yet! - But they is, I bet! 'Cause ef They wuzn't Fairies, nen I' like to know"
"1 Would that the winds might only blow As they blew in the golden long ago! Laden with odors of Orient isles Where ever and e"
"The maple strews the embers of its leaves O'er the laggard swallows nestled 'neath the eaves; And the moody cricket falters in his"
""Hey, Bud! O Bud!" rang out a gleeful call, - "The Loehrs is come to your house!" And a small But very much elated little chap, In"
"I' b'en a-kindo' "musin'," as the feller says, and I'm About o' the conclusion that they hain't no better time, When you come to cipher"
"The audience entire seemed pleased - indeed Extremely pleased. And little Maymie, freed From her task of instructing, ran to show H"
"Wunst I looked our pepper-box lid An' cut little pie-dough biscuits, I did, And cooked 'em on our stove one day When our hired girl"
"Ot's a leedle Christmas story Dot I told der leedle folks - Und I vant you stop dot laughin' Und grackin'"
"The man that rooms next door to me: Two weeks ago, this very night, He took possession quietly, As any"
"Piped to the Spirit of John Keats. I. Would that my lips might pour out in thy praise A fitting melody - an air subli"
"O in the depths of midnight What fancies haunt the brain! When even the sigh of the sleeper Sounds like a sob of pain."
"I. Thou dread, uncanny thing, With fuzzy breast and leathern wing, In mad, zigzagging flight, Notching the dusk, and b"
"What is it in old fiddle-chunes 'at makes me ketch my breath And ripples up my backbone tel I'm tickled most to death? - Kindo' like th"
"I've ben thinkin' back, of late, S'prisin'! - And I'm here to state I'm suspicious it's a sign Of age, maybe, or decline Of my"
"Jes' a little bit o' feller - I remember still, - Ust to almost cry far Christmas, like a youngster will. Fourth o' July's nothin' to"
"Being his mother - when he goes away I would not hold him overlong, and so Sometimes my yielding sight of him grows"
"Miss Medairy Dory-Ann Cast her line and caught a man, But when he looked so pleased, alack! She unhooked and plunked him"
"I. The rain! the rain! the rain! It gushed from the skies and streamed Like awful tears; and the sick man thought H"
"Only a dream! Her head is bent Over the keys of the instrument, While her trembling fingers go astray In the fooli"
"When snow is here, and the trees look weird, And the knuckled twigs are gloved with frost; When the breath congeals in the drover's bea"
"In Spring, when the green gits back in the trees, And the sun comes out and STAYS, And yer boots pulls on with a good tight squeeze"
"Sometimes I think 'at Parents does Things ist about as bad as us - Wite 'fore our vurry eyes, at that! Fer one time Pa he"
"Sweet little myth of the nursery story - Earliest love of mine infantile breast, Be something tangible, bloom in thy glory"
""When it's got to be," - like! always say, As I notice the years whiz past, And know each day is a yesterday, When we size it up,"
"O heart of mine, we shouldn't Worry so! What we've missed of calm we couldn't Have, you know! What we've me"
"You think them "out of reach," your dead? Nay, by my own dead, I deny Your "out of reach." - Be comforted: 'Tis not so far to die"
"The smiling face of a happy boy With its enchanted key Is now unlocking in memory My store of heartiest joy. And my l"
"'Tis said old Santa Claus one time Told this joke on himself in rhyme: One Christmas, in the early din That ever leads the morn"
"The Jaybird he's my favorite Of all the birds they is! I think he's quite a stylish sight In that blue suit of his:"
"There was a cherry-tree. Its bloomy snows Cool even now the fevered sight that knows No more its airy visions of pure joy -- As when you were a boy."
"New Castle, July 4, 1878 or a hundred years the pulse of time Has throbbed for Liberty; For a hundred years the grand old clime Columbia has been fre"
"Who bides his time, and day by day Faces defeat full patiently, And lifts a mirthful roundelay, However poor his fortunes be,-- He will not fail in an"
"A languid atmosphere, a lazy breeze, With labored respiration, moves the wheat From distant reaches, till the golden seas Break in crisp whispers at m"
"Our hired girl, she's 'Lizabuth Ann; An' she can cook best things to eat! She ist puts dough in our pie-pan, An' pours in somepin' 'at's good an' swee"
"A dark, tempestuous night; the stars shut in With shrouds of fog; an inky, jet-black blot The firmament; and where the moon has been"
"When chirping crickets fainter cry, And pale stars blossom in the sky, And twilight's gloom has dimmed the bloom An"
"Seems like a feller'd ort 'o jes' to-day Git down and roll and waller, don't you know, In that-air stubble, and flop up"
"O big old tree, so tall an' fine, Where all us childern swings an' plays, Though neighbers says you're on the line Betwee"
"Our Land - our Home - the common home indeed Of soil-born children and adopted ones - The stately daughters and the stalwart sons O"
"First she come to our house, Tommy run and hid; And Emily and Bob and me We cried jus' like we did When Mother died"
"When evening shadows fall, She hangs her cares away Like empty garments on the wall That hides her from the day; And w"