Armazindy / The Poems and Prose Sketches of James Whitcomb Riley

Chapter 95: THE LOVELY CHILD

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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.

THE LOVELY CHILD

Lilies are both pure and fair,

Growing ’midst the roses there—

Roses, too, both red and pink,

Are quite beautiful, I think.

But of all bright blossoms—best—

Purest—fairest—loveliest,—

Could there be a sweeter thing

Than a primrose, blossoming?