RUBÁIYÁT OF DOC SIFERS
BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
POEMS HERE AT HOME.
NEGHBORLY POEMS.
SKETCHES IN PROSE AND OCCASIONAL VERSES.
AFTERWHILES.
PIPES O' PAN (Prose and Verse).
RHYMES OF CHILDHOOD.
FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT.
OLD-FASHIONED ROSES (English Edition).
GREEN FIELDS AND RUNNING BROOKS.
ARMAZINDY.
A CHILD-WORLD.
AN OLD SWEETHEART OF MINE.
RUBÁIYÁT OF DOC SIFERS
BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
ILLUSTRATED
BY
C. M. RELYEA
PUBLISHED BY THE CENTURY CO.
NEW YORK M DCCC XC VII
Copyright, 1897,
By The Century Co.
Copyright, 1897,
By James Whitcomb Riley
The De Vinne Press.
TO
DR. FRANKLIN W. HAYS
THE LOYAL CHUM OF MY LATEST YOUTH
AND LIKE FRIEND AND COMRADE STILL
WITH ALL GRATEFUL AFFECTION OF
The Author.
We found him in that far-away that yet to us seemsnear—
We vagrants of but yesterday when idlest youth washere,—
When lightest song and laziest mirth possessed usthrough and through,
And all the dreamy summer-earth seemed drugged withmorning dew:
We vagrants of but yesterday when idlest youth washere,—
When lightest song and laziest mirth possessed usthrough and through,
And all the dreamy summer-earth seemed drugged withmorning dew:
When our ambition scarce had shot a stalk or bladeindeed:
Yours,—choked as in the garden-spot you stilldeferred to "weed":
Mine,—but a pipe half-cleared of pith—asnow it flats and whines
In sympathetic cadence with a hiccough in thelines.
Yours,—choked as in the garden-spot you stilldeferred to "weed":
Mine,—but a pipe half-cleared of pith—asnow it flats and whines
In sympathetic cadence with a hiccough in thelines.
Aye, even then—o timely hour!—the highgods did confer
In our behalf:—and, clothed in power, lo, cametheir courier—
Not winged with flame nor shod with wind,—butambling down the pike,
Horseback, with saddlebags behind, and guise allhuman-like.
In our behalf:—and, clothed in power, lo, cametheir courier—
Not winged with flame nor shod with wind,—butambling down the pike,
Horseback, with saddlebags behind, and guise allhuman-like.
And it was given us to see, beneath his rusticrind,
A native force and mastery of such inspiringkind,
That half unconsciously we made obeisance.—smiling,thus
His soul shone from his eyes and laid its glory overus.
A native force and mastery of such inspiringkind,
That half unconsciously we made obeisance.—smiling,thus
His soul shone from his eyes and laid its glory overus.
· · · · · ·
Though, faring still that far-away that yet to us seemsnear,
His for
His for
...