Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, JANIE THOMAS, by JILL SPARGUR


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

JANIE THOMAS, by                    
First Line: Janie thomas always shared
Last Line: And show us her harp and her wings.
Subject(s): Absence; Death; Heaven; Kindness; Separation; Isolation; Dead, The; Paradise


Janie Thomas always shared
The things she had with some one else;
Seemed as though she couldn't enjoy them
By herself.

Her things were never very nice,
Not even as nice as mine;
But I declare, it doubled the price
To see her eyes shine.

The simplest kind of goods for a dress
Had a glamour all its own,
When Janie went down on bargain day—
And brought it home.

And somehow just seeing her being so glad
Made me happier with things I had.

And it wasn't only dresses
That she'd share with you that way,
But any thing she thought you would like
That had happened to her that day.

Sometimes it was something she had seen,
Or flowers from her garden bed,
Or something she thought we would like to know,
Or a story she had read.

I never heard her gossip much,
I never saw her cry;
But she went through life with her arms outstretched
And a shining in her eye.

And her fault, if she had one, was this:
She couldn't enjoy something, old or new,
Unless she had showed it to somebody else,
And they'd seen it and liked it too.

Janie Thomas went away
A couple of years ago.
Why the Lord takes folks like that
I don't know.
And when she went she left a child
With golden hair.
They said it was just like Janie
To leave someone to share
The sorrow here below.

And I see her in heaven bewildered
By all those magnificent things,
And not quite happy
Till she can run down and meet us
And show us her harp and her wings.





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