Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LOST PATH, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LOST PATH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Alone they walked - their fingers knit
Last Line: Was leading safely on to paradise.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Heaven; Roads; Spring; Paradise; Paths; Trails


ALONE they walked -- their fingers knit together,
And swaying listlessly as might a swing
Wherein Dan Cupid dangled in the weather
Of some sun-flooded afternoon of Spring.

Within the clover-fields the tickled cricket
Laughed lightly as they loitered down the lane,
And from the covert of the hazel-thicket
The squirrel peeped and laughed at them again.

The bumblebee that tipped the lily-vases
Along the roadside in the shadows dim,
Went following the blossoms of their faces
As though their sweets must needs be shared with him.

Between the pasture bars the wondering cattle
Stared wistfully, and from their mellow bells
Shook out a welcoming whose dreamy rattle
Fell swooningly away in faint farewells.

And though at last the gloom of night fell o'er them,
And folded all the landscape from their eyes,
They only knew the dusky path before them
Was leading safely on to Paradise.





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