Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A DREAM UNFINISHED, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A DREAM UNFINISHED, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Only a dream unfinished; only a form at rest
Last Line: With weary hands clasped lightly over a peaceful breast.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Dreams; Heaven; Summer; Nightmares; Paradise


ONLY a dream unfinished; only a form at rest
With weary hands clasped lightly over a peaceful breast.

And the lonesome light of summer through the open doorway falls,
But it wakes no laugh in the parlor -- no voice in the vacant halls.

It throws no spell of music over the slumbrous air;
It meets no step on the carpet -- no form in the easy chair.

It finds no queenly presence blessing the solitude
With the gracious benediction of royal womanhood.

It finds no willowy figure tilting the cage that swings
With the little pale canary that forgets the song he sings.

No face at the open window to welcome the fragrant breeze;
No touch at the old piano to waken the sleeping keys.

The idle book lies open, and the folded leaf is pressed
Over the half-told story while death relates the rest.

Only a dream unfinished; only a form at rest,
With weary hands clasped lightly over a peaceful breast.

The light steals into the corner where the darkest shadows are,
And sweeps with its golden fingers the strings of the mute guitar.

And over the drooping mosses it clambers the rustic stand,
And over the ivy's tresses it trails a trembling hand.

But it brings no smile from the darkness -- it calls no face from the gloom --
No song flows out of the silence that aches in the empty room.

And we look in vain for the dawning in the depths of our despair,
Where the weary voice goes wailing through the empty aisles of prayer.

And the hands reach out through the darkness for the touches we have known
When the icy palms lay warmly in the pressure of our own:

When the folded eyes were gleaming with a glory God designed
To light a way to Heaven by the smiles they left behind.

Only a dream unfinished; only a form at rest
With weary hands clasped lightly over a peaceful breast.





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