Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HIS HEART OF CONSTANT YOUTH, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HIS HEART OF CONSTANT YOUTH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Turn through his life, each word
Last Line: And how he loves you now.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Hearts; Life; Love; Youth


And I never hear the drums beat that I do not think of him.
-- MAJOR CHARLES L. HOLSTEIN
TURN through his life, each word and deed
Now sacred as it is --
How helped and soothed we are to read
A history like his!

To turn the years, in far review,
And find him -- as To-day --
In orchard-lands of bloom and dew
Again a boy at play:

The jeweled grass -- the sumptuous trees
And flower and fragrance there,
With song of birds and drone of bees
And Spring-time everywhere:

Turn any chapter that we will,
Read any page, in sooth,
We find his glad heart owning still
The freshness of his youth.

With such a heart of tender care
He loved his own, and thus
His home was, to the loved ones there,
A temple glorious.

And, ever youthful, still his love
Enshrined, all manifold,
The people -- all the poor thereof,
The helpless and the old.

And little children -- Ah! to them
His love was as the sun
Wrought in a magic diadem
That crowned them, every one.

And ever young his reverence for
The laws: like morning-dew
He shone as counsel, orator,
And clear logician, too.

And, as a boy, his gallant soul
Made answer to the trill
Of battle-trumpet and the roll
Of drums that echo still:

His comrades -- as his country, dear --
They knew, and ever knew
That buoyant, boyish love, sincere
As truth itself is true:

He marched with them, in tireless tramp --
Laughed, cheered and lifted up
The battle-chorus, and in camp
Shared blanket, pipe and cup.

His comrades! . . . When you meet again,
In anguish though you bow,
Remember how he loved you then,
And how he loves you now.





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