Read "Red Riding-Hood" by James Whitcomb Riley online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Sweet little myth of the nursery story -- / Earliest love of mine infantile breast, / Be something tangible, bloom in thy glory / Into existence, as thou art addressed!
Hasten! appear to me, guileless and good -- / Thou are so dear to me, Red Riding-Hood!
Azure-blue eyes, in a marvel of wonder, / Over the dawn of a blush breaking out; / Sensitive nose, with a little smile under / Trying to hide in a blossoming pout -- / Couldn't be serious, try as you would, / Little mysterious Red Riding-Hood!
Hah! little girl, it is desolate, lonely, / Out in this gloomy old forest of Life! -- / Here are not pansies and buttercups only -- / Brambles and briers as keen as a knife; / And a Heart, ravenous, trails in the wood / For the meal have he must, -- Red Riding-Hood!