Home at Night

WHEN chirping crickets fainter cry,

And pale stars blossom in the sky,

And twilight's gloom had dimmed the bloom

And blurred the butterfly:

When locust-blossoms fleck the walk,

And up the tiger-lily stalk

The glow-worm crawls and clings and falls

And glimmers down the garden walls:

When buzzing things, with double wings

Of crisp and raspish flutterings,

Go whizzing by so very nigh

One thinks of fangs and stings:--

Oh then, within, is stilled the din

Of crib she rocks the baby in,

And heart and gate and latch's weight

Are lifted--and the lips of Kate.

James Whitcomb Riley

Index to poems in the collection by James Whitcomb Riley