Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HENRY W. GRADY by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: TRUE-HEARTED FRIEND OF ALL
Last Line: WITH THE WHITE SPLENDOR OF THY PROPHECIES.
Subject(s): DEATH; FRIENDSHIP; GRIEF; PROPHECY & PROPHETS; SLEEP; DEAD, THE; SORROW; SADNESS;
TRUE-HEARTED friend of all true friendliness! --
Brother of all true brotherhoods! -- Thy hand
And its late pressure now we understand
Most fully, as it falls thus gestureless
And Silence lulls thee into sweet excess
Of sleep. Sleep thou content! -- Thy loved Southland
Is swept with tears, as rain in sunshine; and
Through all the frozen North our eyes confess
Like sorrow -- seeing still the princely sign
Set on thy lifted brow, and the rapt light
Of the dark, tender, melancholy eyes --
Thrilled with the music of those lips of thine,
And yet the fire thereof that lights the night
With the white splendor of thy prophecies.



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