Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, UNCOMFORTED, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

UNCOMFORTED, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lelloine! Lelloine! Don't you
Last Line: And tell him you are lonely without your mother there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Absence; Death; Grief; Heaven; Separation; Isolation; Dead, The; Sorrow; Sadness; Paradise


LELLOINE! Lelloine! Don't you hear me calling?
Calling through the night for you, and calling through the day;
Calling when the dawn is here, and when the dusk is falling --
Calling for my Lelloine the angels lured away!

Lelloine! I call and listen, starting from my pillow --
In the hush of midnight, Lelloine! I cry,
And o'er the rainy window-pane I hear the weeping willow
Trail its dripping leaves like baby-fingers in reply.

Lelloine, I miss the glimmer of your glossy tresses,
I miss the dainty velvet palms that nestled in my own;
And all my mother-soul went out in answerless caresses,
And a storm of tears and kisses when you left me here alone.

I have prayed, O lelloine, but Heaven will not hear me,
I can not gain one sign from Him who leads you by the hand;
And O it seems that ne'er again His mercy will come near me --
That He will never see my need, nor ever understand.

Won't you listen, Lelloine? -- just a little leaning
O'er the walls of Paradise -- lean and hear my prayer,
And interpret death to Him in all its awful meaning,
And tell Him you are lonely without your mother there.





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