Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DAYS GONE BY, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DAYS GONE BY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: O the days gone by! O the days gone by!
Last Line: In the golden olden glory of the days gone by.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Children; Memory; Past; Youth; Childhood


O THE days gone by! O the days gone by!
The apples in the orchard, and the pathway
through the rye;
The chirrup of the robin, and the whistle of the
quail
As he piped across the meadows sweet as any
nightingale;
When the bloom was on the clover, and the blue
was in the sky,
And my happy heart brimmed over, in the days
gone by.
In the days gone by, when my naked feet were
tripped
By the honeysuckle tangles where the water-lilies
dipped,
And the ripples of the river lipped the moss along
the brink
Where the placid-eyed and lazy-footed cattle came
to drink,
And the tilting snipe stood fearless of the truant's
wayward cry
And the splashing of the swimmer, in the days
gone by.
O the days gone by! O the days gone by!
The music of the laughing lip, the lustre of the
eye;
the childish faith in fairies, and Aladdin's magic
ring --
The simple, soul-reposing, glad belief in every-
thing, --
When life was like a story, holding neither sob
nor sigh,
In the golden olden glory of the days gone by.




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