The Book Of Joyous Children

Bound and bordered in leaf-green,
    Edged with trellised buds and flowers
And glad Summer-gold, with clean
    White and purple morning-glories
    Such as suit the songs and stories
    Of this book of ours,
Unrevised in text or scene, -
        The Book of Joyous Children.

Wild and breathless in their glee -
    Lawless rangers of all ways
Winding through lush greenery
    Of Elysian vales - the viny,
    Bowery groves of shady, shiny
    Haunts of childish days.
Spread and read again with me
        The Book of Joyous Children.

What a whir of wings, and what
    Sudden drench of dews upon
The young brows, wreathed, all unsought,
    With the apple-blossom garlands
    Of the poets of those far lands
    Whence all dreams are drawn
Set herein and soiling not
        The Book of Joyous Children.

In their blithe companionship
    Taste again, these pages through,
The hot honey on your lip
    Of the sun-smit wild strawberry,
    Or the chill tart of the cherry;
    Kneel, all glowing, to
The cool spring, and with it sip
        The Book of Joyous Children.

As their laughter needs no rule,
    So accept their language, pray. -
Touch it not with any tool:
    Surely we may understand it, -
    As the heart has parsed or scanned it
    Is a worthy way,
Though found not in any School
        The Book of Joyous Children.


Be a truant - know no place
    Of prison under heaven's rim!
Front the Father's smiling face -
    Smiling, that you smile the brighter
    For the heavy hearts made lighter,
    Since you smile with Him.
Take - and thank Him for His grace -
        The Book of Joyous Children.

James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. He was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and the "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and children's poetry respectively. Over his career, Riley authored approximately 1,000 poems, including "Little Orphant Annie" and "The Raggedy Man". His influence extended into the 20th century, and his works continued to be celebrated for their nostalgic and rural themes.

James Whitcomb Riley

The Child-World

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The Old Times Were The Best

James Whitcomb Riley, Simple Poetry

Last Night - And This

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The Song Of Yesterday

James Whitcomb Riley, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

The Book Of Joyous Children Gratefully And Affectionately Inscribed To Joel Chandler Harris

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 spirit,
    So your laugh, as children hear it,
    Seems their own, no less, -
Take this book of childish rhyme -
        The Book of Joyous Children.

Their first happiness on earth
    Here is echoed - their first glee:
Rich, in sooth, the volume's worth -
    Not in classic lore, but rich in
    The child-sagas of the kitchen; -
    Therefore, take from me
To your heart of childish mirth
        The Book of Joyous Children.

James Whitcomb Riley

Almon Keefer

Ah, Almon Keefer! what a boy you were,
With your back-tilted hat and careless hair,
And open, honest, fresh, fair face and eyes
With their all-varying looks of pleased surprise
And joyous interest in flower and tree,
And poising humming-bird, and maundering bee.

The fields and woods he knew; the tireless tramp
With gun and dog; and the night-fisher's camp -
No other boy, save Bee Lineback, had won
Such brilliant mastery of rod and gun.
Even in his earliest childhood had he shown
These traits that marked him as his father's own.
Dogs all paid Almon honor and bow-wowed
Allegiance, let him come in any crowd
Of rabbit-hunting town-boys, even though
His own dog "Sleuth" rebuked their acting so
With jealous snarls and growlings.

    But the best

James Whitcomb Riley

Friday Afternoon

TO WILLIAM MORRIS PIERSON

[1868-1870]

Of the wealth of facts and fancies
    That our memories may recall,
The old school-day romances
    Are the dearest, after all! - .
When some sweet thought revises
    The half-forgotten tune
That opened "Exercises"
    On "Friday Afternoon."

We seem to hear the clicking
    Of the pencil and the pen,
And the solemn, ceaseless ticking
    Of the timepiece ticking then;
And we note the watchful master,
    As he waves the warning rod,
With our own heart beating faster
    Than the boy's who threw the wad.

Some little hand uplifted,
    And the creaking of a shoe: -
A problem left unsifted
    For the teacher's hand to do:
The murmured hum of learning -
    And the ...

James Whitcomb Riley

Children

Come to me, O ye children!
    For I hear you at your play,
And the questions that perplexed me
    Have vanished quite away.

Ye open the eastern windows,
    That look towards the sun,
Where thoughts are singing swallows
    And the brooks of morning run.

In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,
    In your thoughts the brooklet's flow,
But in mine is the wind of Autumn
    And the first fall of the snow.

Ah! what would the world be to us
    If the children were no more?
We should dread the desert behind us
    Worse than the dark before.

What the leaves are to the forest,
    With light and air for food,
Ere their sweet and tender juices
    Have been hardened into wood,--

That to the world are childre...

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Poet's Love For The Children

Kindly and warm and tender,
He nestled each childish palm
So close in his own that his touch was a prayer
And his speech a blessed psalm.

He has turned from the marvelous pages
Of many an alien tome -
Haply come down from Olivet,
Or out from the gates of Rome -

Set sail o'er the seas between him
And each little beckoning hand
That fluttered about in the meadows
And groves of his native land, -

Fluttered and flashed on his vision
As, in the glimmering light
Of the orchard-lands of childhood,
The blossoms of pink and white.

And there have been sobs in his bosom,
As out on the shores he stept,
And many a little welcomer
Has wondered why he wept. -

That was because, O children,
Ye might not always be
The ...

James Whitcomb Riley

The Hoosier Folk-Child.

    The Hoosier Folk-Child - all unsung -
    Unlettered all of mind and tongue;
    Unmastered, unmolested - made
    Most wholly frank and unafraid:
    Untaught of any school - unvexed
    Of law or creed - all unperplexed -
    Unsermoned, aye, and undefiled,
    An all imperfect-perfect child -
    A type which (Heaven forgive us!) you
    And I do tardy honor to,
    And so, profane the sanctities
    Of our most sacred memories.
    Who, growing thus from boy to man,
    That dares not be American?
    Go, Pride, with prudent underbuzz -
    Go whistle! as the Folk-Child does.

    The Hoosier Folk-Child's world is not
    Much wider than the stable-lot
    Between the house and highway fence
    That bounds the home his fathe...

James Whitcomb Riley