Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN ORDER FOR A SONG, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN ORDER FOR A SONG, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Make me a song of all good
Last Line: And heaven lean to hear.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Grief; Singing & Singers; Tears; Sorrow; Sadness


MAKE me a song of all good things,
And fill it full of murmurings,
Of merry voices, such as we
Remember in our infancy;
But make it tender, for the sake
Of hearts that brood and tears that break,
And tune it with the harmony,
The sighs of sorrow make.

Make me a song of summer-time,
And pour such music down the rhyme
As ripples over gleaming sands
And grassy brinks of meadow-lands;
But make it very sweet and low,
For need of them that sorrow so,
Because they reap with empty hands
The dreams of long ago.

Make me a song of such a tone,
That when we croon it all alone,
The tears of longing as they drip,
Will break in laughter on the lip;
And make it, oh, so pure and clear
And jubilant that every ear
Shall drink its rapture sip by sip,
And Heaven lean to hear.





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