James Whitcomb Riley

"The rhyme o' The Raggedy Man's 'at's best     Is Tickle me, Love, in these Lonesome Ribs, -     'Cause that-un's the strangest of all o' the res"

""Oh! the old swimmin'-hole! whare the crick so still and deep     Looked like a baby-river that was laying half asleep,     And the gurgle of th"

"Bound and bordered in leaf-green,         Edged with trellised buds and flowers      And glad Summer-gold, with clean          White and purpl"

"Pap he allus ust to say,      "Chris'mus comes but onc't a year!"     Liked to hear him that-a-way,      In his old split-bottomed cheer     B"

"Mother, O mother! forever I cry for you,         Sing the old song I may never forget;      Even in slumber I murmur and sigh for you. -"

"1     Once, in a dream, I saw a man,     With haggard face and tangled hair,     And eyes that nursed as wild a care     As gaunt Starvation"

"At Union Station     'Ll where in the world my eyes has bin -     Ef I hain't missed that train ag'in!     Chuff! And whistle! And toot! And"

""Mylo Jones's wife" was all     I heerd, mighty near, last Fall -     Visitun relations down     T'other side of Morgantown!     Mylo Jones's"

"A wee little worm in a hickory-nut         Sang, happy as he could be, -           "O I live in the heart of the whole round world,"

"Just to be good -                 This is enough - enough!         O we who find sin's billows wild and rough,         Do we not feel how"

"Low hidden in among the forest trees             An artist's tilted easel, ankle-deep         In tousled ferns and mosses, and in these"

"On the banks o' Deer Crick!    There's the place fer me! -         Worter slidin' past ye jes as clair as it kin be: -         See yer sha"

""tired out!"    Yet face and brow     Do not look aweary now,     And the eyelids lie like two     Pure, white rose-leaves washed with dew."

"Heigh-ho! Babyhood! Tell me where you linger:         Let's toddle home again, for we have gone astray;      Take this eager hand of mine and l"

"We got up a Christmas-doin's             Last Christmas Eve -         Kindo' dimonstration             'At I railly believe         Give"

"Say something to me!    I've waited so long -         Waited and wondered in vain;     Only a sentence would fall like a song         Over this"

"At Noey's house - when they arrived with him -     How snug seemed everything, and neat and trim:     The little picket-fence, and little gate"

"Dear Lord, to Thee my knee is bent -         Give me content -     Full-pleasured with what comes to me,         Whate'er it be:     An humble"

"Illileo, the moonlight seemed lost across the vales -     The stars but strewed the azure as an armor's scattered scales;     The airs of night"

"I     In the evening of our days,      When the first far stars above     Glimmer dimmer, through the haze,      Than the dewy eyes of love,"

"Friend of a wayward hour, you came      Like some good ghost, and went the same;      And I within the haunted place      Sit smiling on your"

"Say good-by er howdy-do -      What's the odds betwixt the two?      Comin' - goin', ev'ry day -      Best friends first to go away -      Gr"

"Out at Woodruff Place - afar         From the city's glare and jar,         With the leafy trees, instead         Of the awnings, overhead;"

"The past is like a story      I have listened to in dreams      That vanished in the glory      Of the Morning's early gleams;      And - at"

"Ah, help me! but her face and brow     Are lovelier than lilies are     Beneath the light of moon and star     That smile as they are smiling n"

"I've thought a power on men and things,             As my uncle ust to say, -         And ef folks don't work as they pray, i jings!"

"Dimple-cheeked and rosy-lipped,      With his cap-rim backward tipped,      Still in fancy I can see      Little Tommy smile on me -"

"DEAD! my wayward boy - my own -      Not the Law's! but mine - the good      God's free gift to me alone,      Sanctified by motherhood."

""Rain and rain! And rain and rain!"     Yesterday we muttered     Grimly as the grim refrain     That the thunders uttered:     All the heaven"

"Welladay!      Here I lay      You at rest - all worn away,          O my pencil, to the tip          Of our old companionship!      Memory"

"For you, I could forget the gay      Delirium of merriment,     And let my laughter die away      In endless silence of content.         I cou"

"W'y, one time wuz a little-weenty dirl,     An' she wuz named Red Riding Hood, 'cause her -     Her Ma she maked a little red cloak fer her"

"I come upon it suddenly, alone -             A little pathway winding in the weeds         That fringe the roadside; and with dreams my own"

"While any day was notable and dear     That gave the children Noey, history here     Records his advent emphasized indeed     With sharp italic"

"Donn Piatt - of Mac-o-chee, -         Not the one of History,         Who, with flaming tongue and pen,         Scathes the vanities of me"

"A Old Tramp slep' in our stable wunst,      An' The Raggedy Man he caught     An' roust him up, an' chased him off      Clean out through our b"

"Coming, clean from the Maryland-end     Of this great National Road of ours,     Through your vast West; with the time to spend,     Stopping f"

"O The Little Lady's dainty         As the picture in a book,      And her hands are creamy-whiter         Than the water-lilies look;      He"

""I have twankled the strings of the twinkering rain;         I have burnished the meteor's mail;             I have bridled the wind"

"Allus when our Pa he's away         Nen Uncle Sidney comes to stay         At our house here - so Ma an' me         An' Etty an' Lee-Bob wo"

"Knightly Rider of the Knee     Of Proud-prancing Unclery!     Gaily mount, and wave the sign     Of that mastery of thine.     Pat thy steed"

"Right here at home, boys, in old Hoosierdom,         Where strangers allus joke us when they come,         And brag o' their old States and"

"Ah, Almon Keefer! what a boy you were,     With your back-tilted hat and careless hair,     And open, honest, fresh, fair face and eyes     Wit"

"For the sake of guilty conscience, and the heart that ticks the time     Of the clockworks of my nature, I desire to say that I'm     A weak and"

"What intuition named thee? - Through what thrill         Of the awed soul came the command divine         Into the mother-heart, foretelling"

"Wintertime, er Summertime,         Of late years I notice I'm,         Kindo'-like, more subjec' to         What the weather is.    Now, yo"

"The Crankadox leaned o'er the edge of the moon         And wistfully gazed on the sea     Where the Gryxabodill madly whistled a tune         T"

"Even in such a scene of senseless play     The children were surprised one summer-day     By a strange man who called across the fence,     Inq"

"They meet to say farewell: Their way     Of saying this is hard to say.     He holds her hand an Instant, wholly     Distressed - and she uncla"

"This man Jones was what you'd call      A feller 'at had no sand at all;      Kind o' consumpted, and undersize,      And sailor-complected, w"

"I'm thist a little cripple boy, an' never goin' to grow     An' get a great big man at all! - 'cause Aunty told me so.     When I was thist a ba"

"Close the book and dim the light,         I shall read no more to-night.         No - I am not sleepy, dear -         Do not go: sit by me"

"Some sings of the lily, and daisy, and rose,         And the pansies and pinks that the Summertime throws     In the green grassy lap of the med"

"They all climbed up on a high board-fence -      Nine little Goblins, with green-glass eyes -     Nine little Goblins that had no sense,      A"

"O the waiting in the watches of the night!         In the darkness, desolation, and contrition and affright;         The awful hush that hol"

"The boy lives on our Farm, he's not      Afeard o' horses none!     An' he can make 'em lope, er trot,      Er rack, er pace, er run.     Some"

"DIED - Early morning of September 5, 1876, and     in the gleaming dawn of "name and fame,"     Hamilton J. Dunbar.     Dead!    Dead!"

"Herr Weiser! Three-score-years-and-ten,     A hale white rose of his country-men,     Transplanted here in the Hoosier loam,     And blossomy a"

"Blossoms crimson, white, or blue,     Purple, pink, and every hue,     From sunny skies, to tintings drowned     In dusky drops of dew,     I"

"Las' time 'at Uncle Sidney come,     He bringed a watermelon home -          An' half the boys in town,     Come taggin' after him. - An' he"