James Whitcomb Riley
Riley Love-Lyrics
Published by Good Press, 2022
goodpress@okpublishing.info
EAN 4064066163006
Table of Contents
RILEY LOVE-LYRICS
AN OLD SWEETHEART OF MINE
A' OLD PLAYED-OUT SONG
A VERY YOUTHFUL AFFAIR
AN OUT-WORN SAPPHO
THE PASSING OF A HEART
"DREAM"
HE CALLED HER IN
HER FACE AND BROW
HER BEAUTIFUL EYES
WHEN SHE COMES HOME
LET US FORGET
LEONAINIE
HER WAITING FACE
THE OLD YEAR AND THE NEW
THEIR SWEET SORROW
JUDITH
HE AND I
THE LOST PATH
MY BRIDE THAT IS TO BE
HOW IT HAPPENED
WHEN MY DREAMS COME TRUE
NOTHIN' TO SAY
IKE WALTON'S PRAYER
ILLILEO
THE WIFE-BLESSÉD
MY MARY
HOME AT NIGHT
WHEN LIDE MARRIED HIM
HER HAIR
LAST NIGHT—AND THIS
A DISCOURAGING MODEL
SUSPENSE
THE RIVAL
TOM VAN ARDEN
TO HEAR HER SING
A VARIATION
WHERE SHALL WE LAND?
THE TOUCHES OF HER HANDS
FARMER WHIPPLE—BACHELOR
THE ROSE
WHEN AGE COMES ON
HAS SHE FORGOTTEN?
BLOOMS OF MAY
THE SERMON OF THE ROSE
BLOOMS OF MAY
DISCOURAGING MODEL, A
"DREAM"
FARMER WHIFFLE—BACHELOR
HAS SHE FORGOTTEN?
HE AND I
HE CALLED HER IN
HER BEAUTIFUL EYES
HER FACE AND BROW
HER HAIR
HER WAITING FACE
HOME AT NIGHT
HOW IT HAPPENED
IKE WALTON'S PRAYER
ILLILEO
JUDITH
LAST NIGHT AND THIS
LEONAINIE
LET US FORGET
LOST PATH, THE
MY BRIDE THAT IS TO BE
MY MARY
NOTHIN' TO SAY
OLD PLAYED-OUT SONG, A'
OLD SWEETHEART OF MINE, AN
OLD YEAR AND THE NEW, THE
OUT-WORN SAPPHO, AN
PASSING OF A HEART, THE
RIVAL, THE
ROSE, THE
SERMON OF THE ROSE, THE
SUSPENSE
THEIR SWEET SORROW
TO HEAR HER SING
TOM VAN ARDEN
TOUCHES OF HER HANDS, THE
VARIATION, A
VERY YOUTHFUL AFFAIR, A
WHEN AGE COMES ON
WHEN LIDE MARRIED HIM
WHEN MY DREAMS COME TRUE
WHEN SHE COMES HOME
WHERE SHALL WE LAND?
WIFE-BLESSÉD, THE
RILEY LOVE-LYRICS
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AN OLD SWEETHEART OF MINE
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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.
In fact, to speak in earnest, I believe it adds a charm
To spice the good a trifle with a little dust of harm—
For I find an extra flavor in Memory's mellow wine
That makes me drink the deeper to that old sweetheart of mine.
A face of lily-beauty, with a form of airy grace.
Floats out of my tobacco as the genii from the vase;
And I thrill beneath the glances of a pair of azure eyes
As glowing as the summer and as tender as the skies.
I can see the pink sunbonnet and the little checkered dress
She wore when first I kissed her and she answered the caress
With the written declaration that, "as surely as the vine
Grew round the stump," she loved me—that old sweetheart of mine.
And again I feel the pressure of her slender little hand,
As we used to talk together of the future we had planned—
When I should be a poet, and with nothing else to do
But write the tender verses that she set the music to:
When we should live together in a cozy little cot
Hid in a nest of roses, with a fairy garden-spot,
Where the vines were ever fruited, and the weather ever fine,
And the birds were ever singing for that old sweetheart of mine:
When I should be her lover forever and a day,
And she my faithful sweetheart till the golden hair was gray;
And we should be so happy that when either's lips were dumb
They would not smile in Heaven till the other's kiss had come.
But, ah! my dream is broken by a step upon the stair,
And the door is softly opened, and—my wife is standing there;
Yet with eagerness and rapture all my visions I resign
To greet the living presence of that old sweetheart of mine.
A' OLD PLAYED-OUT SONG
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It's the curiousest thing in creation,
Whenever I hear that old song
"Do They Miss Me at Home," I'm so bothered,
My life seems as short as it's long!—
Fer ev'rything 'pears like adzackly
It 'peared in the years past and gone,—
When I started out sparkin', at twenty,
And had my first neckercher on!
Though I'm wrinkelder, older and grayer
Right now than my parents was then,
You strike up that song "Do They Miss Me,"
And I'm jest a youngster again!—
I'm a-standin' back thare in the furries
A-wishin' fer evening to come,
And a-whisperin' over and over
Them words "Do They Miss Me at Home?"
You see, Marthy Ellen she sung it
The first time I heerd it; and so,
As she was my very first sweetheart,
It reminds me of her, don't you know;—
How her face used to look, in the twilight,
As I tuck her to Spellin'; and she
Kep' a-hummin' that song tel I ast her,
Pint-blank, ef she ever missed me!
I can shet my eyes now, as you sing it,
And hear her low answerin' words;
And then the glad chirp of the crickets,
As clear as the twitter of birds;
And the dust in the road is like velvet,
And the ragweed and fennel and grass
Is as sweet as the scent of the lilies
Of Eden of old, as we pass.
"Do They Miss Me at Home?" Sing it lower—
And softer—and sweet as the breeze
That powdered our path with the snowy
White bloom of the old locus'-trees!
Let the whipperwills he'p you to sing it,
And the echoes 'way over the hill,
Tel the moon boolges out, in a chorus
Of stars, and our voices is still.
But oh! "They's a chord in the music
That's missed when her voice is away!"
Though I listen from midnight tel morning,
And dawn tel the dusk of the day!
And I grope through the dark, lookin' upwards
And on through the heavenly dome,
With my longin' soul singin' and sobbin'
The words "Do They Miss Me at Home?"
