James Whitcomb Riley Quotes

19 Sourced Quotes

An' all us other children, when the supper things is done, We set around the kitchen fire an' has the mostest fun A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about, An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you Ef you Don't Watch Out!

James Whitcomb Riley
And the sun had on a crown
Wrought of gilded thistledown,
And a scarf of velvet vapor
And a raveled rainbow gown;
And his tinsel-tangled hair
Tossed and lost upon the air
Was glossier and flossier
Than any anywhere.

James Whitcomb Riley
And I don't kneer how she pours; I kin keep kind o'ca'm in a thunder-storm, No matter how loud she roars; I hain't much skeered o' the lightnin', Ner I hain't sich awful shakes Afeared o' cyclones — but I don't want none O' yer dad-burned old earthquakes!.

James Whitcomb Riley
But thou, O cricket, with thy roundelay, Shalt laugh them all to scorn! So wilt thou, pray Trill me thy glad song o'er and o'er again: In thy sweet prattle, since it sings the lone Heart home again.

James Whitcomb Riley
To hear the katydids "cheep-cheep!" And think they say Their prayer that way; But katydids don't have to pray!

James Whitcomb Riley
And the humming-bird that hung Like a jewel up among The tilted honeysuckle-horns, They mesmerized and swung In the palpitating air, Drowsed with odors strange and rare, And, with whispered laughter, slipped away, And left him hanging there.

James Whitcomb Riley
The jelly - the jam and the marmalade, And the cherry-and quince-'preserves' she made! And the sweet-sour pickles of peach and pear, With cinnamon in 'em, and all things rare! And the more we ate was the more to spare, Out to old Aunt Mary's! Ah!

James Whitcomb Riley
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... is a fairy cupid tangled in a scarf of poetry.

James Whitcomb Riley
In gentlest worship has he bowed To Nature. Rescued from the crowd And din of town and thoroughfare, He turns him from all worldly care Unto the sacred fastness of The forest, and the peace and love That beats there prayer-like in the breeze.

James Whitcomb Riley
Then — sudden — did the earth moan as it slept, And start as one in evil dreams, and toss Its peopled arms up, as the horror crept.

James Whitcomb Riley
Tell you what I like the best -
'Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strawberries melts
On the vine, - some afternoon
Like to jes' git out and rest,
And not work at nothin' else!

James Whitcomb Riley
'Long about knee-deep in June,
'Bout the time strawberries melts
On the vine.

James Whitcomb Riley
Oh! the old swimmin' hole! When I last saw the place, The scenes was all changed, like the change in my face.

James Whitcomb Riley
As one who cons at evening o'er an album all alone,
And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known,
So I turn the leaves of Fancy, till in shadowy design
I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine.

James Whitcomb Riley
An' the Gobble-uns 'll git you
Ef you don't watch out.

James Whitcomb Riley
O, it sets my heart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

James Whitcomb Riley
One naked star has waded through
The purple shadows of the night,
And faltering as falls the dew
It drips its misty light.

James Whitcomb Riley
O'er folded blooms
On swirls of musk,
The beetle booms adown the glooms
And bumps along the dusk.

James Whitcomb Riley
Think of him still as the same, I say, He is not dead, he is just - away.

James Whitcomb Riley