Riley Love-Lyrics

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Title: Riley Love-Lyrics
Author: James Whitcomb Riley
Illustrator: Will Vawter
Release Date: November 23, 2006 [EBook #19897]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
Zero. START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RILEY
LOVE-LYRICS ***
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[Illustration]
RILEY LOVE-LYRICS
[Illustration]
RILEY LOVE-LYRICS
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
ILLUSTRATED BY WILL VAWTER

INDIANAPOLIS
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1883, 1887, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1894, 1897, 1898,
1901, 1905 by James Whitcomb Riley.
Copyright 1921, The Bobbs-Merrill Company
_Printed in the United States of America_
PRESS OF
BRAUNWORTH & CO.
BOOK MANUFACTURERS
BROOKLYN, N.Y.
INSCRIBED
TO THE ELECT OF LOVE,--OR SIDE-BY-SIDE
IN RAPTEST
ECSTASY, OR SUNDERED WIDE
BY SEAS THAT BEAR NO
MESSAGE TO OR FRO
BETWEEN THE LOVED AND LOST
OF LONG AGO.
_So were I but a minstrel, deft
At weaving, with the trembling strings

Of my glad harp, the warp and weft
Of rondels such as rapture
sings,--
I'd loop my lyre across my breast,
Nor stay me till my knee
found rest
In midnight banks of bud and flower
Beneath my lady's
lattice-bower.
And there, drenched with the teary dews,
I'd woo her with such
wondrous art
As well might stanch the songs that ooze
Out of the
mockbird's breaking heart;
So light, so tender, and so sweet
Should
be the words I would repeat,
Her casement, on my gradual sight,

Would blossom as a lily might._
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS

BLOOMS OF MAY 185
DISCOURAGING MODEL, A 132

"DREAM" 41
FARMER WHIFFLE--BACHELOR 161
HAS
SHE FORGOTTEN? 183
HE AND I 79
HE CALLED HER IN
45
HER BEAUTIFUL EYES 56
HER FACE AND BROW 55

HER HAIR 129
HER WAITING FACE 67
HOME AT NIGHT
122
HOW IT HAPPENED 93
IKE WALTON'S PRAYER 107

ILLILEO 113
JUDITH 75
LAST NIGHT AND THIS 130

LEONAINIE 63
LET US FORGET 60
LOST PATH, THE 83

MY BRIDE THAT IS TO BE 87
MY MARY 117
NOTHIN' TO
SAY 103
OLD PLAYED-OUT SONG, A' 26
OLD
SWEETHEART OF MINE, AN 17
OLD YEAR AND THE NEW,
THE 68
OUT-WORN SAPPHO, AN 32
PASSING OF A
HEART, THE 39
RIVAL, THE 137
ROSE, THE 177

SERMON OF THE ROSE, THE 189
SUSPENSE 136
THEIR
SWEET SORROW 72
TO HEAR HER SING 149
TOM VAN
ARDEN 138
TOUCHES OF HER HANDS, THE 159

VARIATION, A 151
VERY YOUTHFUL AFFAIR, A 31

WHEN AGE COMES ON 180
WHEN LIDE MARRIED _HIM_
125
WHEN MY DREAMS COME TRUE 98
WHEN SHE
COMES HOME 59
WHERE SHALL WE LAND? 156

WIFE-BLESSÉD, THE 115
RILEY LOVE-LYRICS
[Illustration]
AN OLD SWEETHEART OF MINE
As one who cons at evening o'er an album all alone,
And muses on
the faces of the friends that he has known, So I turn the leaves of fancy
till, in shadowy design,
I find the smiling features of an old
sweetheart of mine.
The lamplight seems to glimmer with a flicker of surprise, As I turn it
low to rest me of the dazzle in my eyes,
And light my pipe in silence,

save a sigh that seems to yoke Its fate with my tobacco and to vanish
with the smoke.
Tis a fragrant retrospection--for the loving thoughts that start Into being
are like perfume from the blossom of the heart; And to dream the old
dreams over is a luxury divine--
When my truant fancy wanders with
that old sweetheart of mine.
Though I hear, beneath my study, like a fluttering of wings, The voices
of my children, and the mother as she sings, I feel no twinge of
conscience to deny me any theme
When Care has cast her anchor in
the harbor of a dream.
[Illustration]
In fact, to speak in earnest, I believe it adds a charm To spice the good
a trifle with a little