Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A SCRAWL by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I WANT TO SING SOMETHING - BUT
Last Line: THAT SWINGS IN THE SMILE OF GOD.
Subject(s): GOD; LOVE; RHYME;
I WANT to sing something -- but this is all --
I try and I try, but the rhymes are dull
As though they were damp, and the echoes fall
Limp and unlovable.

Words will not say what I yearn to say --
They will not walk as I want them to,
But they stumble and fall in the path of the way
Of my telling my love for you.

Simply take what the scrawl is worth --
Knowing I love you as sun the sod
On the ripening side of the great round earth
That swings in the smile of God.



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