Classic and Contemporary Poetry
DEATH, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Lo, I am dying! And to feel the Last Line: Soh, bless me! I am dead! Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Death; Life; Love; Soul; Dead, The | ||||||||
LO, I am dying! And to feel the King Of Terrors fasten on me, steeps all sense Of life, and love, and loss, and everything, In such deep calms of restful indolence, His keenest fangs of pain are sweet to me As fused kisses of mad lovers' lips When, flung shut-eyed in spasmed eclipse, And so thank God with ever-tightening lids! But what I see, the soul of me forbids All utterance of; and what I hear and feel, The rattle in my throat could ill reveal Though it were music to your ears as to Mine own. -- Press closer -- closer -- I have grown So great, your puny arms about me thrown Seem powerless to hold me here with you; -- I slip away -- I waver -- and -- I fall -- Christ! What a plunge! Where am I dropping? All My breath bursts into dust -- I can not cry -- I whirl -- I reel and veer up overhead. And drop flat-faced against -- against -- the sky -- Soh, bless me! I am dead! | 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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