Section: «Poems»

Verse (ancient Greek ὁ στίχος — row, structure), a term in versification used in several meanings: artistic speech organized by division into rhythmically commensurate segments; poetry in the narrow sense; in particular, it implies the properties of versification of a particular tradition ("antique verse", "Akhmatova's verse", etc.); a line of poetic text organized according to a certain rhythmic pattern ("My uncle of the most honest rules").

We To Sigh Instead Of Sing

"Rain and Rain! and rain and rain!"Yesterday we mutteredGrimly as the grim refrainThat the thunders uttered:All the heavens under cloud --All the..

© James Whitcomb Riley

To A Boy Whistling

The smiling face of a happy boyWith its enchanted keyIs now unlocking in memoryMy store of heartiest joy.And my lost life again to-day,In pleasant..

© James Whitcomb Riley

There Was A Cherry-Tree

There was a cherry-tree. Its bloomy snowsCool even now the fevered sight that knowsNo more its airy visions of pure joy --As when you were a..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Little Dick And The Clock

When Dicky was sickIn the night, and the clock,As he listened, said 'Tick-Atty--tick-atty--tock!'He said that _it_ said,Every time it said 'Tick,'It..

© James Whitcomb Riley

In Fervent Praise Of Picnics

Picnics is fun 'at's purty hard to beat.I purt'-nigh ruther go to them than _eat_.I purt'-nigh ruther go to them than goWith our Char_lot_ty to the..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Herr Weiser

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

© James Whitcomb Riley

Her Waiting Face

In some strange placeOf long-lost lands he finds her waiting face--Comes marveling upon it, unaware,Set moonwise in the midnight of her hair.

© James Whitcomb Riley

Floretty's Musical Contribution

All seemed delighted, though the elders more,Of course, than were the children.--Thus, beforeMuch interchange of mirthful compliment,The story-teller..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Farmer Whipple--Bachelor

It's a mystery to see me--a man o' fifty-four,Who's lived a cross old bachelor fer thirty year' and more--A-lookin' glad and smilin'! And they's none..

© James Whitcomb Riley

His Mother

DEAD! my wayward boy--_my own_--Not _the Law's!_ but _mine_--the goodGod's free gift to me alone,Sanctified by motherhood.'Bad,' you say: Well, who..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Last Night-- And This

Last night-- how deep the darkness was!And well I knew its depths, becauseI waded it from shore to shore,Thinking to reach the light no more.She..

© James Whitcomb Riley

George Mullen's Confession

For the sake of guilty conscience, and the heart that ticks thetimeOf the clockworks of my nature, I desire to say that I'mA weak and sinful..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Find The Favorite

Our three cats is Maltese cats,An' they's two that's white,--An' bofe of 'em's _deef_--an' that's'Cause their _eyes_ ain't right.--Uncle say that..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Job Work

'Write me a rhyme of the present time'.And the poet took his penAnd wrote such lines as the miser mindsHide in the hearts of men.He grew enthused, as..

© James Whitcomb Riley

By Her White Bed

By her white bed I muse a little space:She fell asleep--not very long ago,--And yet the grass was here and not the snow--The leaf, the bud, the..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Bryant

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 flingsIn sad aeolian..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Billy And His Drum

Ho! it's come, kids, come!'With a bim! bam! bum!Here's little Billy bangin' on his big bass drum!He's a-marchin' round the room,With his..

© James Whitcomb Riley

At Noon--And Midnight

Far in the night, and yet no rest for him! The pillow next his ownThe wife's sweet face in slumber pressed--yet he awake--alone!alone!In vain he..

© James Whitcomb Riley

The Merman

IWho would beA merman gay,Singing alone,Sitting alone,With a mermaid's knee,For instance--hey--For a throne?III would be a merman gay;I would sit and..

© James Whitcomb Riley

At Noey's House

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

© James Whitcomb Riley

At Last

A dark, tempestuous night; the stars shut inWith shrouds of fog; an inky, jet-black blotThe firmament; and where the moon has beenAn hour agone seems..

© James Whitcomb Riley

As My Uncle Used To Say

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!W'y, they ain't no use to pray!Ef you..

© James Whitcomb Riley

At Utter Loaf

I.An afternoon as ripe with heatAs might the golden pippin beWith mellowness if at my feetIt dropped now from the apple-treeMy hammock swings in..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Jap Miller

Jap Miller down at Martinsville's the blamedest feller yit!When _he_ starts in a-talkin' other folks is apt to quit!--'Pears like that mouth o' his'n..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Leonainie

Leonainie--Angels named her;And they took the lightOf the laughing stars and framed herIn a smile of white;And they made her hair of gloomyMidnight..

© James Whitcomb Riley