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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


by James Whitcomb Riley
 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.
"



by James Whitcomb Riley
 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.

by James Whitcomb Riley
 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.

by James Whitcomb Riley
 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.