James Whitcomb Riley

"Scene. - A kitchen. - Group of Children, popping corn. - The Fairy Queen of the Seasons discovered in the smoke of the corn-popper. - Waving her w"

"Wasn't it pleasant, O brother mine,     In those old days of the lost sunshine     Of youth - when the Saturday's chores were through,     And"

"Reach your hand to me, my friend,             With its heartiest caress -         Sometime there will come an end             To its prese"

"[W.S.]      With a hey! and a hi! and a hey-ho rhyme!          O the shepherd lad          He is ne'er so glad      As when he pipes, in the"

"Why did we meet long years of yore?         And why did we strike hands and say      "We will be friends and nothing more";         Why are we"

"I.         In youth he wrought, with eyes ablur,             Lorn-faced and long of hair -         In youth - in youth he painted her"

"How slight a thing may set one's fancy drifting      Upon the dead sea of the Past! - A view -     Sometimes an odor - or a rooster lifting"

"All were quite gracious in their plaudits of     Bud's Fairy; but another stir above     That murmur was occasioned by a sweet     Young lady-c"

"And you're the poet of this concern?         I've seed your name in print     A dozen times, but I'll be dern         I'd 'a' never 'a' took th"

"He puts the poem by, to say      His eyes are not themselves to-day!      A sudden glamour o'er his sight -      A something vague, indefinit"

"Scotty's dead - Of course he is!      Jes' that same old luck of his! -      Ever sence we went cahoots      He's be'n first, you bet yer boot"

"Within the sitting-room, the company     Had been increased in number. Two or three     Young couples had been added: Emma King,     Ella and M"

"The Hired Man's supper, which he sat before,     In near reach of the wood-box, the stove-door     And one leaf of the kitchen-table, was     S"

"What makes you come HERE fer, Mister,         So much to our house? - SAY?     Come to see our big sister! -     An' Charley he says 'at you ki"

"When we three meet? Ah! friend of mine      Whose verses well and flow as wine, -         My thirsting fancy thou dost fill         With draug"

""'S cur'ous-like," said the tree-toad,      "I've twittered fer rain all day;      And I got up soon,      And hollered tel noon -     But the"

"Season of snows, and season of flowers,             Seasons of loss and gain! -         Since grief and joy must alike be ours,"

"O the old trundle-bed where I slept when a boy!     What canopied king might not covet the joy?     The glory and peace of that slumber of mine,"

"'I muse to-day, in a listless way,         In the gleam of a summer land;     I close my eyes as a lover may         At the touch of his sweeth"

"Lo! steadfast and serene,      In patient pause between      The seen and the unseen,         What gentle zephyrs fan      Your silken silver"

"A quite convincing axiom         Is, "Life is like a play";     For, turning back its pages some         Few dog-eared years away,"

""If I die first," my old chum paused to say,          "Mind! not a whimper of regret: - instead,         Laugh and be glad, as I shall. - Being"

"I hain't no hand at tellin' tales,     Er spinnin' yarns, as the sailors say;     Someway o' 'nother, language fails     To slide fer me in the"

"When Dicky was sick         In the night, and the clock,      As he listened, said "Tick-         Atty - tick-atty - tock!"      He said that"

"I find an old deserted nest,         Half-hidden in the underbrush:     A withered leaf, in phantom jest,         Has nestled in it like a thru"

"There wasn't two purtier farms in the state     Than the couple of which I'm about to relate; -     Jinin' each other - belongin' to Brown,"

"The world is turned ag'in' me,         And people says, "They guess     That nothin' else is in me         But pure maliciousness!"     I git"

"Sir Launcelot rode overthwart and endlong in a wide forest, and held no path but as wild adventure led him... And he returned and came again to his ho"

"Lawzy! don't I rickollect      That-'air old swing in the lane!     Right and proper, I expect,      Old times can't come back again;     But"

"Let us be thankful - not only because             Since last our universal thanks were told         We have grown greater in the world's app"

"Jes' a little bit o' feller - I remember still -     Ust to almost cry fer Christmas, like a youngster will.     Fourth o' July's nothin' to it!"

"In its color, shade and shine,         'T was a summer warm as wine,         With an effervescent flavoring of flowered bough and vine,"

"When we hear Uncle Sidney tell         About the long-ago      An' old, old friends he loved so well         When he was young - My-oh! -"

"Back from a two-years' sentence!     And though it had been ten,     You think, I were scarred no deeper     In the eyes of my fellow-men."

"We must get home! How could we stray like this? -     So far from home, we know not where it is, -     Only in some fair, apple-blossomy place"

"We are not always glad when we smile:      Though we wear a fair face and are gay,         And the world we deceive         May not ever believ"

"I     Who would be         A merman gay,         Singing alone,         Sitting alone,     With a mermaid's knee,         For instance - he"

"O it was but a dream I had             While the musician played! -         And here the sky, and here the glad             Old ocean kiss"

"I      Could I pour out the nectar the gods only can,         I would fill up my glass to the brim      And drink the success of the Travelin"

"When Memory, with gentle hand,     Has led me to that foreign land     Of childhood days, I long to be     Again the boy on bended knee,     W"

"Last night - how deep the darkness was!     And well I knew its depths, because     I waded it from shore to shore,     Thinking to reach the l"

"Where are they - the Afterwhiles -     Luring us the lengthening miles     Of our lives? Where is the dawn     With the dew across the lawn"

"A NEW VERSION BY LEE O. HARRIS AND JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY     "You are old, Father William, and though one would think         All the veins in your"

"It's mighty good to git back to the old town, shore,      Considerin' I've be'n away twenty year and more.      Sence I moved then to Kansas, o"

"They walk here with us, hand-in-hand;      We gossip, knee-by-knee;     They tell us all that they have planned -      Of all their joys to be,"

"The touches of her hands are like the fall      Of velvet snowflakes; like the touch of down     The peach just brushes 'gainst the garden wall;"

"I heard the bells at midnight         Ring in the dawning year;     And above the clanging chorus         Of the song, I seemed to hear     A"

"Tomps 'ud allus haf to say             Somepin' 'bout "his mother's way." -         He lived hard-like - never jined         Any church of"

""He is my friend," I said, -         "Be patient!"    Overhead         The skies were drear and dim;         And lo! the thought of him"

"How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood         That now but in mem'ry I sadly review;      The old meeting-house at the edge of th"

"But yesterday!...     O blooms of May,     And summer roses - Where-away?     O stars above,     And lips of love     And all the honeyed swe"

"1      The Hired Man Talks     There's old man Willards; an' his wife;     An' Marg'et - S'repty's sister; an'     There's me - an' I'm the"

"I have sipped, with drooping lashes,             Dreamy draughts of Verzenay;         I have flourished brandy-smashes             In the w"

"Such a dear little street it is, nestled away     From the noise of the city and heat of the day,     In cool shady coverts of whispering trees,"

"Mellow hazes, lowly trailing         Over wood and meadow, veiling         Somber skies, with wildfowl sailing             Sailor-like to f"

"A day of torpor in the sullen heat             Of Summer's passion: In the sluggish stream         The panting cattle lave their lazy feet,"

"When I wuz ist a little bit          o' weenty-teenty kid      I maked up a Fairy-tale,          all by myse'f, I did: -      I      Wu"

"Thousands of thousands of hushed years ago,     Out on the edge of Chaos, all alone     I stood on peaks of vapor, high upthrown     Above a se"

"The harp has fallen from the master's hand;     Mute is the music, voiceless are the strings,         Save such faint discord as the wild wind f"

"When June is here - what art have we to sing         The whiteness of the lilies midst the green         Of noon-tranced lawns? Or flash of ros"