Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LITTLE LADY, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LITTLE LADY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: O the little lady's dainty
Last Line: Lady.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Beauty; Faces; Hands; Praise


O THE Little Lady's dainty
As the picture in a book,
And her hands are creamy-whiter
Than the water-lilies look;
Her laugh's the undrown'd music
Of the maddest meadow-brook. --
Yet all in vain I praise The Little
Lady!

Her eyes are blue and dewy
As the glimmering Summer-dawn, --
Her face is like the eglantine
Before the dew is gone;
And were that honied mouth of hers
A bee's to feast upon,
He'd be a bee bewildered, Little Lady!
Her brow makes light look sallow;
And the sunshine, I declare,
Is but a yellow jealousy
Awakened by her hair --
For O the dazzling glint of it
Nor sight nor soul can bear, --
So Love goes groping for The Little
Lady.

And yet she's neither Nymph nor Fay,
Nor yet of Angelkind: --
She's but a racing schoolgirl, with
Her hair blown out behind
And tremblingly unbraided by
The fingers of the Wind,
As it wildly swoops upon The Little
Lady.





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