James Whitcomb Riley

"Tommy's alluz playin' jokes,      An' actin' up, an' foolin' folks;         An' wunst one time he creep      In Pa's big chair, he did, one ni"

"They ain't no style about 'em,     And they're sorto' pale and faded,     Yit the doorway here, without 'em,     Would be lonesomer, and shaded"

"O The Raggedy Man! He works fer Pa;     An' he's the goodest man ever you saw!     He comes to our house every day,     An' waters the horses,"

"Hey, Old Midsummer! are you here again,         With all your harvest-store of olden joys, -     Vast overhanging meadow-lands of rain,     And"

"John McKeen, in his rusty dress,     His loosened collar, and swarthy throat,     His face unshaven, and none the less,     His hearty laugh an"

"While with Ambition's hectic flame          He wastes the midnight oil,         And dreams, high-throned on heights of fame,             To"

"When country roads begin to thaw         In mottled spots of damp and dust,     And fences by the margin draw         Along the frosty crust"

"He was jes a plain ever'-day, all-round kind of a jour.,     Consumpted-Iookin' - but la!     The jokeiest, wittiest, story-tellin', song-singin"

"When Autumn shakes the rambo-tree -         It's a long, sweet way across the orchard! -      The bird sings low as the bumble-bee -"

"O we go down to sea in ships -      But Hope remains behind,     And Love, with laughter on his lips,      And Peace, of passive mind;     Whi"

"Ha! My dear! I'm back again -         Vendor of Bohemia's wares!      Lordy! How it pants a man         Climbing up those awful stairs!"

"Long years ago, a funny man,         Flushed with a strange delight,      Sat down and wrote a funny thing         All in the solemn night;"

"There! Little girl; don't cry!     They have broken your doll, I know;     And your tea-set blue,     And your play-house too,     Are things"

"O your hands - they are strangely fair!      Fair - for the jewels that sparkle there, -      Fair - for the witchery of the spell      That i"

"Somebody's sent a funny little valentine to me.      It's a bunch of baby-roses in a vase of filigree,      And hovering above them - just as c"

"I am not prone to moralize      In scientific doubt     On certain facts that Nature tries      To puzzle us about, -     For I am no philosop"

"Ho! I'm going back to where     We were youngsters. - Meet me there,     Dear old barefoot chum, and we     Will be as we used to be, -     La"

"So lone I stood, the very trees seemed drawn             In conference with themselves. - Intense - intense         Seemed everything; - the"

"Old Man Whiskery-Whee-Kum-Wheeze      Lives 'way up in the leaves o' trees.      An' wunst I slipped up-stairs to play      In Aunty's room, w"

"Sing! gangling lad, along the brink         Of wild brook-ways of shoal and deep,      Where killdees dip, and cattle drink,         And glint"

"O the days gone by! O the days gone by!     The apples in the orchard, and the pathway through the rye;     The chirrup of the robin, and the wh"

""Now who shall say he loves me not."     He wooed her first in an atmosphere         Of tender and low-breathed sighs;     But the pang of her"

"What dat scratchin' at de kitchin do'?     Done heah'n dat foh an hour er mo'!     Tell you Mr. Niggah, das sho's yo' bo'n,     Hit's mighty lo"

"Owned a pair o' skates onc't. - Traded             Fer 'em, - stropped 'em on and waded         Up and down the crick, a-waitin'         Te"

"First the teacher called the roll,             Clos't to the beginnin',         "Addeliney Bowersox!"             Set the school a-grinnin'"

"The winds have talked with him confidingly;     The trees have whispered to him; and the night     Hath held him gently as a mother might,"

"Let us forget.    What matters it that we             Once reigned o'er happy realms of long-ago,             And talked of love, and let ou"

"AFTER READING HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY     POOR victim of that vulture curse     That hovers o'er the universe,     With ready talons quick to strike"

"Fer forty year and better you have been a friend to me,     Through days of sore afflictions and dire adversity,     You allus had a kind word o"

"The ordered intermingling                 of the real and the dream,--             The mill above the river,                 and the mi"

"Barefooted boys scud up the street      Or skurry under sheltering sheds;     And schoolgirl faces, pale and sweet,      Gleam from the shawls"

"I     But yesterday     I looked away     O'er happy lands, where sunshine lay     In golden blots     Inlaid with spots     Of shade and w"

"Old friends allus is the best,      Halest-like and heartiest:      Knowed us first, and don't allow      We're so blame much better now!"

"Marcellus, won't you tell us -         Truly tell us, if you can, -      What will you be, Marcellus,         When you get to be a man?"

"Maud Muller worked at making hay,     And cleared her forty cents a day.     Her clothes were coarse, but her health was fine,     And so she"

"O your hands - they are strangely fair!     Fair - for the jewels that sparkle there, -     Fair - for the witchery of the spell     That ivory"

"They called him Mr. What's-his-name:     From where he was, or why he came,     Or when, or what he found to do,     Nobody in the city knew."

"Young Philiper Flash was a promising lad,     His intentions were good - but oh, how sad         For a person to think         How the veriest"

"His daily, nightly task is o'er -      He leans above his desk no more.      His pencil and his pen say not      One further word of gracious"

"I quarrel not with Destiny,     But make the best of everything -     The best is good enough for me.     Leave Discontent alone, and she"

"I have jest about decided             It 'ud keep a town-boy hoppin'             Fer to work all winter, choppin'         Fer a' old fire-p"

"THAT ALEX "IST MAKED UP HIS-OWN-SE'F"     W'y, wunst they wuz a Little Boy went out     In the woods to shoot a Bear. So, he went out     'Way"

"In the heart of June, love,         You and I together,      On from dawn till noon, love,         Laughing with the weather;      Blending b"

"You who to the rounded prime         Of a life of toil and stress,      Still have kept the morning-time          Of glad youth in heart and s"

"The old days - the far days -      The overdear and fair! -     The old days - the lost days -      How lovely they were!     The old days of"

"O queenly month of indolent repose!     I drink thy breath in sips of rare perfume,     As in thy downy lap of clover-bloom     I nestle like a"

"Ay, thou varlet! Laugh away!     All the world's a holiday!     Laugh away, and roar and shout     Till thy hoarse tongue lolleth out!     Blo"

"Just drifting on together -             He and I -     As through the balmy weather             Of July      Drift two thistle-tufts imbedded"

"When Age comes on! -     "The deepening dusk is where the dawn         Once glittered splendid, and the dew     In honey-drips, from red rose-"

"Granny's come to our house,     And ho! My lawzy-daisy!     All the childern round the place     Is ist a-runnin' crazy!     Fetched a cake fe"

"I'm bin a-visitun 'bout a week     To my little Cousin's at Nameless Creek,     An' I'm got the hives an' a new straw hat,     An' I'm come bac"

"My little story, Cousin Rufus said,     Is not so much a story as a fact.     It is about a certain willful boy -     An aggrieved, unapprecia"

"Curly Locks! Curly Locks! wilt thou be mine?     Thou shalt not wash the dishes, nor yet feed the swine, -     But sit on a cushion and sew a fi"

"Most tangible of all the gods that be,     O Santa Claus - our own since Infancy!     As first we scampered to thee - now, as then,     Take us"

"No song is mine of Arab steed -         My courser is of nobler blood,         And cleaner limb and fleeter speed,             And greater"

"To the Elect of Love, - or side-by-side     In raptest ecstasy, or sundered wide     By seas that bear no message to or fro     Between the lov"

"I know all about the Sphinx -     I know even what she thinks,     Staring with her stony eyes     Up forever at the skies.     For last nigh"

"Little Boy! Halloo! - halloo!             Can't you hear me calling you? -         Little Boy that used to be,             Come in here an"

"[W.W.]      A little maid, of summers four -         Did you compute her years, -      And yet how infinitely more         To me her age a"

"Wait for the morning: - It will come, indeed,      As surely as the night hath given need.      The yearning eyes, at last, will strain their s"