Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PROEM, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PROEM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: We found him in that far-away that yet to us seems near--
Last Line: The hearts of all his time are his, with your hale heart and mine.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Hearts; Youth


WE found him in that Far-away that yet to us seems near --
We vagrants of but yesterday when idlest youth was here, --
When lightest song and laziest mirth possessed us through and through,
And all the dreamy summer-earth seemed drugged with morning dew:

When our ambition scarce had shot a stalk or blade indeed:
Yours, -- choked as in the garden-spot you still deferred to "weed":
Mine, -- but a pipe half-cleared of pith -- as now it flats and whines
In sympathetic cadence with a hiccough in the lines.

Ay, even then -- O timely hour! -- the High Gods did confer
In our behalf: -- And, clothed in power, lo, came their Courier --
Not winged with flame nor shod with wind, -- but ambling down the pike,
Horseback, with saddle-bags behind, and guise all human-like.

And it was given us to see, beneath his rustic rind,
A native force and mastery of such inspiring kind,
That half unconsciously we made obeisance. -- Smiling, thus
His soul shone from his eyes and laid its glory over us.

. . . . . . . . .

Though, faring still that Far-away that yet to us seems near,
His form, through mists of yesterday, fades from the vision here,
Forever as he rides, it is in retinue divine, --
The hearts of all his time are his, with your hale heart and mine.





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