JOLLY-HEARTED old Josh Billings, With his wisdom and his wit, And his gravity of presence, And the drollery of it! -- Has he left us, and forever? -- When so many merry years He has only left us laughing -- And he leaves us now in tears? Has he turned from his "Deer Publik," With his slyly twinkling eyes Now grown dim and heavy-lidded In despite of sunny skies? -- Yet with rugged brow uplifted, And the long hair tossed away, Like an old heroic lion, With a mane of iron-gray. Though we lose him, still we find him In the mirth of every lip, And we fare through all his pages In his glad companionship: His voice is wed with Nature's, Laughing in each woody nook With the chirrup of the robin And the chuckle of the brook. But the children -- O the children! -- They who leaped to his caress, And felt his arms about them, And his love and tenderness, -- Where -- where will they find comfort As their tears fall like the rain, And they swarm his face with kisses That he answers not again? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ITALIAN PICTURES: JULY IN VALLOMBROSA by MINA LOY STANZAS WRITTEN ON THE ROAD BETWEEN FLORENCE AND PISA by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE FORGOTTEN GRAVE by EMILY DICKINSON GOING AND STAYING by THOMAS HARDY WHERE THE PICNIC WAS by THOMAS HARDY ON A VOLUME OF ANONYNOUS POEMS ENTITLED A MASQUE OF POETS by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO A LADY WHO HAD LOST A RELATIVE by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |