|
Rating:  - Anthems for the Heartland
You can take the Hoosier out of the state of Indiana, but you can't take the Hoosier out of one's heart. This book was an inspiration to me as a child, and as an adult living in another state, I am still transported by the words of James Whitcomb Riley to the lazy edge of a river, to the Ol' Swimmin' Hole, or to where the Frost is on the Punkin'. His images of simple pleasures of a past life still make us forget all of our modern problems. I recommend this to anyone who has ever lived in the country, or needs to be spirited far away from city stress.
Rating: - greatest poet ever
when i was little, we wore out a copy of riley's poems and stories making my father read them to us. especially "the happy cripple" and "the bear story". riley is great.
Rating: - I Wanted to be "The Raggedy Man"
(...)
Riley was the Poet Laureate of the U.S. from Indiana--Hoosier country. And his poetry was beautiful and I still enjoy reading them. There isn't any emotion that I can imagine that he didn't cover in the ten-volume set that I had come by as a youth. And now with all of them in a single volume, I'm happy again that I need not fear the loss of yellowed and crumbling pages, but that I may now, enjoy that simpler time yet once again.
Wait until it's a rainy day. Throw a log on the fire. Heat up some hot chocolate or cocoa and just read from this volume, either to yourself or your children. Let them grow up hearing of Hoosiers and their simple bit insightful life. Who knows, they may even embrace some of the purer values expressed in Riley's work for themselves. I did and I will. Again and again.
(...)
Rating: - Poetry for everyone
You don't have to be a farmer, a Hoosier or a senior citizen longing for the days gone by to enjoy James Whitcomb Riley's poems! My mother (a born and bred Okie) loved his Farm Rhymes and Child Rhymes and I have her old, cracking books, as well as this complete volume which I bought myself several years ago. There is a poem in the book for every day and every occasion. Read what he writes about the rain, about summer, about the house of someone he loved, about marriage, about death, about children, about slamming screen doors, about parents and politicians and more! They're wonderful and accessible by anyone -- this isn't high-fallutin' poetry that might not make much sense. JWR's words inspired me to own a meadow with a tree to lie under, a creek to wade in and long grass to blow with the approach of a storm. I'm reading selected poems to my 8 year old son now, who enjoys them very much -- and then we write our own!
Rating: - Visions
Riley's simple homespun tales.. his inflection of the local Hoosier dialect of the era and the unique way he has of creating a treasurery of pictures in your mind.. gives the reader a real feeling of stepping back in time and exploring the memories of the heart. Being a Hoosier farmer myself this author captures the emotions of the soul and releases them in the childlike purity of his script. I see now why my mother loved the works of James Whitcomb Riley. I'm just sorry it took me so long.
|
