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 o' you can say...
Friend of a wayward hour, you came Like some good ghost, and went the same; And I within the haunted place Sit smiling on your vanished face, And talking with - your name. ...
Go, Winter! Go thy ways! We want again The twitter of the bluebird and the wren; Leaves ever greener growing, and the shine Of Summer's sun - not thine. - ...
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 home - As blossomy and as pure and sweet...
When two little boys - renowned but for noise - Hik-tee-dik! Billy and Buddy! - May hurt a whole school, and the head it employs, Hik-tee-dik! Billy and Buddy! Such loud and hilarious pupils indeed...
Tomps 'ud allus haf to say Somepin' 'bout "his mother's way." - He lived hard-like - never jined Any church of any kind. - "It was Mother's way," says he, "To be good enough fer me...
If I knew what poets know, Would I write a rhyme Of the buds that never blow In the summer-time? Would I sing of golden seeds Springing up in ironweeds? And of raindrops turned to snow,...
I crave, dear Lord, No boundless hoard Of gold and gear, Nor jewels fine, Nor lands, nor kine, Nor treasure-heaps of anything. Let but a little hut be mine Where at the hearthstone I may hear...
A strange life - strangely passed! We may not read the soul When God has folded up the scroll In death at last. We may not - dare not say of one Whose task of life as well was done...
Out at Woodruff Place - afar From the city's glare and jar, With the leafy trees, instead Of the awnings, overhead; With the shadows cool and sweet, For the fever of the street;...
Dear Lord, to Thee my knee is bent - Give me content - Full-pleasured with what comes to me, Whate'er it be: An humble roof - a frugal board, And simple hoard; The wintry fagot piled beside...
Jes' a little bit o' feller - I remember still, - Ust to almost cry far Christmas, like a youngster will. Fourth o' July's nothin' to it! - New-Year's ain't a smell:...
"Mylo Jones's wife" was all I heerd, mighty near, last Fall - Visitun relations down T'other side of Morgantown! Mylo Jones's wife she does This and that, and "those" and "thus"! -...
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 believe We could laugh in a happier way. - Yet, down in the deeps of the soul,...
Old Bob White's a funny bird! - Funniest you ever heard! - Hear him whistle, - "Old - Bob - White!" You can hear him, clean from where He's 'way 'crosst the wheat-field there,...