Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A WORN-OUT PENCIL, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Welladay! / here I lay Last Line: With his dead songs by his side. Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Death; Memory; Pens & Pencils; Dead, The | ||||||||
WELLADAY! Here I lay You at rest -- all worn away, O my pencil, to the tip Of our old companionship! Memory Sighs to see What you are, and used to be, Looking backward to the time When you wrote your earliest rhyme! -- When I sat Filing at Your first point, and dreaming that Your initial song should be Worthy of posterity. With regret I forget If the song be living yet, Yet remember, vaguely now, It was honest, anyhow. You have brought Me a thought -- Truer yet was never taught, -- That the silent song is best, And the unsung worthiest. So if I, When I die, May as uncomplainingly Drop aside as now you do, Write of me, as I of you: -- Here lies one Who begun Life a-singing, heard of none; And he died, satisfied, With his dead songs by his side. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND A BOY'S MOTHER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |
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