Much of his poetry charms us with its presentation of rural life. In _The Old Swimmin'-Hole and 'Leven More Poems_ (1883), it is a delight to accompany him "When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock," or when "The summer winds is sniffin' round the bloomin' locus' trees, And the clover in the pastur' is a big day fer the bees," or again, in _Neighborly Poems_ (1891), as he listens to _The First Bluebird_ singing with "A breezy, treesy, beesy hum, Too sweet fer anything!" We welcome him as the champion of a new democratic flower. In his poem, _The Clover_, he says:-- "But what is the lily and all of the rest Of the flowers, to a man with a hart in his brest That was dipped brimmin' full of the honey and dew Of the sweet clover-blossoms his babyhood knew?" Like Eugene Field, Riley loved children. His _Rhymes of Childhood_ (1890) contains such favorites as _The Raggedy Man_, _Our Hired Girl_, _Little Orphant Annie_, with its bewitching warning about the "_Gobble-uns_," and the pathetic _Little Mahala Ashcraft_. But no matter whether his verses take us to the farm, to the child, to the inner circle of the home, or to a neighborly gathering, their first characteristic is simplicity. Some of his best verse entered the homes of the common people more easily because it was written in the Hoosier dialect. He is a democratic poet, and the common people listen to him. In _Afterwhiles_ (1887), he says:-- "The tanned face, garlanded with mirth, It hath the kingliest smile on earth-- The swart brow, diamonded with sweat, Hath never need of coronet." In like vein are his lines from _Griggsby's Station_:-- "Le's go a-visitin' back to Griggsby's Station-- Back where the latch string's a-hangin' from the door, And ever' neighbor 'round the place is dear as a relation-- Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore!" In lines like the following from _Afterwhiles_, there is a rare mingling of pathos and hope and kindly optimism:-- "I cannot say, and I will not say That he is dead.--He is just away! "With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand, He has wandered into an unknown land, "And left us dreaming how very fair It needs must be, since he lingers there." The charitable optimism of his lines:-- "I would sing of love that lives On the errors it forgives," has touched many human hearts. Furthermore, he has unusual humor, which is as delightful and as pervasive as the odor of his clover fields. Humor drives home to us the application of the optimistic philosophy in these lines:-- "When a man's jest glad plum through, God's pleased with him, same as you." "When God sorts out the weather and sends rain, W'y, rain's my choice." In poems like _Griggsby's Station_ he shows his power in making a subject pathetic and humorous at the same time.