Death & Dying

The Dead Lover

by James Whitcomb Riley 1849–1916

From Afterwhiles (1887)

Death & Dying

Time is so long when a man is dead!
Some one sews; and the room is made
Very clean; and the light is shed
Soft through the window-shade.

Yesterday I thought: "I know
Just how the bells will sound, and how
The friends will talk, and the sermon go,
And the hearse-horse bow and bow!"

This is to-day; and I have no thing
To think of-- nothing whatever to do
But to hear the throb of the pulse of a wing
That wants to fly back to you.

MLA

Riley, James Whitcomb. “The Dead Lover.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/riley/211/.

Chicago

Riley, James Whitcomb. “The Dead Lover.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/riley/211/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

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