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").

To An Importunate Ghost

Get gone, thou most uncomfortable ghost!Thou really dost annoy me with thy thinImpalpable transparency of grin;And the vague, shadowy shape of thee..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Time Of Clearer Twitterings

I.Time of crisp and tawny leaves,And of tarnished harvest sheaves,And of dusty grasses--weeds--Thistles, with their tufted seedsVoyaging the Autumn..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Time

1The ticking-- ticking-- ticking of the clock--!That vexed me so last night--! 'For though Time keepsSuch drowsy watch,' I moaned, 'he never..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Through Sleepy-Land

Where do you go when you go to sleep,Little Boy! Little Boy! where?'Way--'way in where's Little Bo-Peep,And Little Boy Blue, and the Cows and..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Three Dead Friends

Always suddenly they are gone--The friends we trusted and held secure--Suddenly we are gazing on,Not a _smiling_ face, but the marble-pureDead mask..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Thoughts Fer The Discuraged Farmer

The summer winds is sniffin' round the bloomin'locus' trees;And the clover in the pastur is a big day fer the bees,And they been a-swiggin' honey..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Thomas The Pretender

Tommy's alluz playin' jokes,An' actin' up, an' foolin' folks;An' wunst one time he creepIn Pa's big chair, he did, one night,An' squint an' shut his..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Thinkin' Back

I've ben thinkin' back, of late,S'prisin'!--And I'm here to stateI'm suspicious it's a signOf _age_, maybe, or declineOf my faculties,--and yitI'm..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Them Flowers

Take a feller 'at's sick and laid up on the shelf,All shaky, and ga'nted, and pore--Jes all so knocked out he can't handle hisselfWith a stiff..

© James Whitcomb Riley

The Train Misser

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 ring!But blast and..

© James Whitcomb Riley

The Rose

It tossed its head at the wooing breeze;And the sun, like a bashful swain,Beamed on it through the waving treesWith a passion all in vain,--For my..

© James Whitcomb Riley

To Hear Her Sing

To hear her sing--to hear her sing--It is to hear the birds of SpringIn dewy groves on blooming spraysPour out their blithest roundelays.It is to..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Wait For The Morning

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

© James Whitcomb Riley

What The Wind Said

'I muse to-day, in a listless way,In the gleam of a summer land;I close my eyes as a lover mayAt the touch of his sweetheart's hand,And I hear these..

© James Whitcomb Riley

What Smith Knew About Farming

There wasn't two purtier farms in the stateThan the couple of which I'm about to relate;--Jinin' each other--belongin' to Brown,And jest at the edge..

© James Whitcomb Riley

To My Old Friend, William Leachman

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 of counsul to..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Pipes O' Pan At Zekesbury

The pipes of Pan! Not idler now are theyThan when their cunning fashioner first blewThe pith of music from them: Yet for youAnd me their notes are..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Philiper Flash

Young Philiper Flash was a promising lad,His intentions were good--but oh, how sadFor a person to thinkHow the veriest pinkAnd bloom of perfection..

© James Whitcomb Riley

The Bat

I.Thou dread, uncanny thing,With fuzzy breast and leathern wing,In mad, zigzagging flight,Notching the dusk, and buffetingThe black cheeks of the..

© James Whitcomb Riley

The Boy Patriot

I want to be a Soldier!--A Soldier!--A Soldier!--I want to be a Soldier, with a sabre in my handOr a little carbine rifle, or a musket on my..

© James Whitcomb Riley

The Chant Of The Cross-Bearing Child

I bear dis cross dis many a mile.O de cross-bearin' chile--De cross-bearin' chile!I bear dis cross 'long many a roadWha' de pink ain't bloom' an' de..

© James Whitcomb Riley

Robert Burns Wilson

What intuition named thee?--Through what thrillOf the awed soul came the command divineInto the mother-heart, foretelling thineShould palpitate with..

© James Whitcomb Riley

The Rainy Morning

The dawn of the day was dreary,And the lowering clouds o'erheadWept in a silent sorrowWhere the sweet sunshine lay dead;And a wind came out of the..

© James Whitcomb Riley

The Old Year And The New

I.As one in sorrow looks uponThe dead face of a loyal friend,By the dim light of New Year's dawnI saw the Old Year end.Upon the pallid features..

© James Whitcomb Riley

The South Wind And The Sun

O The South Wind and the Sun!How each loved the other oneFull of fancy--- full folly--Full of jollity and fun!How they romped and ran about,Like two..

© James Whitcomb Riley