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ON HEARING JAMES W. RILEY READ; FROM A KENTUCKY STANDPOINT, by                    
First Line: To tell the truth, each piece he read
Last Line: But just come out and tell him so.
Subject(s): Riley, James Whitcomb (1849-1916)


To tell the truth, each piece he read
Set up a jingle in my head
That bumped and thumped and roared about,
Then on a sudden just crept out,
Gently and slowly at the start,
Then made a bee-line for my heart.

And more than once I thought maybe
His charming Hoosier poetry
Would be a guide to lead me over
To the Elysian fields of clover.

To find fault with his worst or best
Would be like finding fault with rest
After a fellow has been in
The dirt and dust up to his chin,
And bathed and stretched beneath the trees
Whose branches fairly hug the breeze.

In these hackneyed and sordid days,
When censure thorns the bud of praise
And many think they ought not to
Give genius half its honest due,
And never fail to bombard it
With silly quips and shallow wit,
I like to just go hunt it up
And sup and sip and sip and sup;
And then I like to speak my praise
In honest thought and simple phrase,

And let the giver know that I
Delight in him and tell him why,
And not go wavering to and fro
But just come out and tell him so.





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