Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DEATH IS DEAD, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEATH IS DEAD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: And did you know our old friend
Last Line: The kind old sockets grew forever dim.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Death; Fantasy; Ghosts; Supernatural; Dead, The


AND did you know our old friend Death is dead?
Ah me! he died last night; my ghost was there,
And all his phantom-friends from everywhere
Were sorrowfully grouped about his bed.
"I die; God help the living now!" he said
With such a ghastly pathos, I declare
The tears oozed from the blind eyes of the air
And spattered on his face in gouts of red.
And then he smiled -- the dear old bony smile
That glittered on us in that crazy whim
When first our daring feet leapt the defile
Of life and ran so eagerly to him:
And so he smiled upon us, even while
The kind old sockets grew forever dim.





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