Armazindy / The Poems and Prose Sketches of James Whitcomb Riley

Chapter 62: TO A JILTED SWAIN

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About This Book

A mixed collection of poems and prose sketches that depicts small‑town and rural life through vernacular narration, sentimental observation, and comic detail. Longer narrative pieces explore personal loss, domestic struggles, and neighborhood intrigues, while shorter lyrics and children’s verses celebrate play, memory, and everyday tenderness. The voice shifts between musical, folksy dialect and plain colloquial phrasing, producing a rhythmic, conversational tone. Recurrent concerns include household labor, family ties, youthful fancy, and the mingled humor and nostalgia of ordinary community experience.

TO A JILTED SWAIN

Get thee back neglected friends;

And repay, as each one lends,

Tithes of shallow-sounding glee

Or keen-ringing raillery:

Get thee from lone vigils; be

But in jocund company,

Where is laughter and acclaim

Boisterous above the name.—

Get where sulking husbands sip

Ale-house cheer, with pipe at lip;

And where Mol the barmaid saith

Curst is she that marrieth.