In The Dark

James Whitcomb Riley was America's poet of childhood and the small-town heartland. Known in his lifetime as 'the Hoosier Poet,' he captured a vanishing world with an accuracy and tenderness that made him one of the most beloved American writers of his era. His verses move between broad dialect humor and quiet, aching nostalgia - sometimes within a single stanza. 'In The Dark' collects his more contemplative work, poems that step away from the laughter and into the shadows where memory lives. Here, Riley writes about loss, longing, and the particular darkness that comes with growing older while the world stays young. These are verses to read when the house is quiet - poems that understand how much courage it takes to face the dark honestly.