Classic and Contemporary Poetry
SONGS TUNELESS, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: He kisses me! Ah, now, at last Last Line: And rake the ashes over it. Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Kisses; Love; Night; Youth; Bedtime | ||||||||
I HE kisses me! Ah, now, at last, He says good night as it should be, His great warm eyes bent yearningly Above my face -- his arms locked fast About me, and mine own eyes dim With happy tears for love of him. He kisses me! Last night, beneath A swarm of stars, he said I stood His one fair form of womanhood, And springing, shut me in the sheath Of a caress that almost hid Me from the good his kisses did. He kisses me! He kisses me! This is the sweetest song I know, And so I sing it very low And faint, and O so tenderly That, though you listen, none but he May hear it as he kisses me. II "How can I make you love me more?" -- A thousand times she asks me this, Her lips uplifted with the kiss That I have tasted o'er and o'er, Till now I drain it with no sense Other than utter indolence. "How can I make you love me more?" -- A thousand times her questioning face Has nestled in its resting-place Unanswered, till, though I adore This thing of being loved, I doubt Not I could get along without. "How can she make me love her more?" -- Ah! little woman, if, indeed, I might be frank as is the need Of frankness, I would fall before Her very feet, and there confess My love were more if hers were less. III Since I am old I have no care To babble silly tales of when I loved, and lied, as other men Have done, who boasted here and there, They would have died for the fair thing They after murdered, marrying. Since I am old I reason thus -- No thing survives, of all the past, But just regret enough to last Us till the clods have smothered us; -- Then, with our dead loves, side by side, We may, perhaps, be satisfied. Since I am old, and strive to blow Alive the embers of my youth And early loves, I find, in sooth, An old man's heart may burn so low, 'Tis better just to calmly sit And rake the ashes over it. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN A BOY'S MOTHER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |
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