James Whitcomb Riley (7 October 1849 - 22 July 1916 / Greenfield, Indiana)
James Whitcomb Riley was an American writer, poet, and best selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the Hoosier Poet and Children's Poet for his dialect works and his children's poetry respectively. His poems tended to be humorous or sentimental, and of the approximately one thousand poems that Riley authored, the majority are in dialect. His famous works include "Little Orphant Annie" and "The Raggedy Man".
Riley began his career writing verses as a sign maker and submitting poetry to newspapers. Thanks in part to an endorsement from poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, he eventually earned successive jobs at Indiana newspaper publishers during the latter 1870s. Riley ... more »
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Popular Poems
- A Ballad
- A Barefoot Boy
- A Bear Family
- A Brave Refrain
- A Bride
- A Canary At The Farm
- A Child-World
- A Christmas Memory
- A Country Pathway
- A Cup Of Tea
- A Delicious Interruption
- A Discouraging Model
- A Ditty Of No Tone
- A Diverted Tragedy
Quotations
more quotations »-
''A-list'nin' to the witch-tales 'at Annie tells about,
James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), U.S. poet. Little Orphant Annie (l. 7-12). . . Oxford Book of Children's Verse, The. Iona Opie and Peter Opie, e...
An' the Gobble-uns 'at gits you
Ef you
Don't
Watch
Out!'' -
''Little Orphant Annie's come to our house to stay,
James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), U.S. poet. Little Orphant Annie (l. 1-2). . . Oxford Book of Children's Verse, The. Iona Opie and Peter Opie, ed...
An' wash the cups an' saucers up, an' brush the crumbs away,'' -
''the ache here in the throat,
James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), U.S. poet. When She Comes Home (l. 10-12). . . Anthology of American Poetry. George Gesner, ed. (1983) Avenel Bo...
To know that I so ill deserve the place
Her arms make for me;'' -
a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), U.S. poet. When the Frost Is on the Punkin (l. 5-8). . . Oxford Book of American Light Verse, The. William Harmo...
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bare-headed, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the fr...
Comments about James Whitcomb Riley
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Hi,
I am miss joy by name, Is my pleasure to contact you after going through your profile at /www.poemhunter.com which really interest me in having communication with you. I will appreciate if you can write me back (joybabyjohn25@yahoo.co.uk) for easiest communication and to know more about each other so that i will explain myself to you and also send my picture to you.
Take care and have a nice day.
I await hearing from you soonest.
Yours truly
joy
(joybabyjohn25@yahoo.co.uk)
Date of birth listed above is wrong. It's October 7th not the 9th.
I read your poems and it was good.
James I read your 'poem of the day' and I think it is brilliant! your sense of rythmn & rhyme is beautiful and your poetic license with spelling and alliteration is superb.
It makes wish I could have been the fly on the wall in a meeting between you and the late Ogden Nash- Keep it up Cheers Tony Judson