James Whitcomb Riley Short Poems

Famous Short James Whitcomb Riley Poems. Short poetry by famous poet James Whitcomb Riley. A collection of the all-time best James Whitcomb Riley short poems

• James Whitcomb Riley Poems
• James Whitcomb Riley Best Poems

A Parting Guest  

 What delightful hosts are they -- 
 Life and Love! 
Lingeringly I turn away, 
 This late hour, yet glad enough 
They have not withheld from me 
 Their high hospitality.
 
So, with face lit with delight 
 And all gratitude, I stay 
 Yet to press their hands and say, 
"Thanks.
 -- So fine a time! Good night.
"

The Old Times Were the Best  

 Friends, my heart is half aweary
Of its happiness to-night:
Though your songs are gay and cheery,
And your spirits feather-light,
There's a ghostly music haunting
Still the heart of every guest
And a voiceless chorus chanting
That the Old Times were the best.


CHORUS

All about is bright and pleasant
With the sound of song and jest,
Yet a feeling's ever present
That the Old Times were the best.

The Willow  

 On sweet young earth where the myrtle presses,
Long we lay, when the May was new;
The willow was winding the moon in her tresses,
The bud of the rose was told with dew.


And now on the brittle ground I'm lying,
Screaming to die with the dead year's dead;
The stem of the rose is black and drying,
The willow is tossing the wind from her head.

The Rival  

 I so loved once, when Death came by I hid 
 Away my face, 
And all my sweetheart's tresses she undid 
 To make my hiding-place.
 

The dread shade passed me thus unheeding; and 
 I turned me then 
To calm my love -- kiss down her shielding hand 
 And comfort her again.
 

And lo! she answered not: and she did sit 
 All fixedly, 
With her fair face and the sweet smile of it, 
 In love with Death, not me.