Van Allen sifts facts from fiction to construct as true a portrait of Riley as possible in the context of the society in which he lived."--BOOK JACKET.

If I knew what poets know. --James Whitcomb Riley

An Old Sweetheart of Mine is a poem by James Whitcomb Riley, an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. The poem is dedicated to Rile's first love, a girl he met at school, and about their school-time romance that grew in the marriage and happy life together. Each book page presents a separate piece of a romantic poem telling about a particular period or event in the poet's memory. It is a great poetic work about the flow of time and the transformation of love through the years of routine life.

The best-loved poems by the "Hoosier Poet" are here collected to read and cherish time and time again. Included are some of Riley’s most durable and endearing works—poems about nature, home, and country as well as the dialect poems for which Riley is famous.

A classic poem of automn is accompanied by illustrations of a young girl's day on a farm.