Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


DEAD IN SIGHT OF FAME by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: DEAD! DEAD! DEAD!
Last Line: WILL SEE IT AND BE RECONCILED.
Subject(s): DEATH; FAME; HEAVEN; TEARS; DEAD, THE; REPUTATION; PARADISE;

DIED -- @3Early morning of September 5, 1876, and
in the gleaming dawn of "name and fame," Hamilton J. Dunbar.@1

Dead! Dead! Dead!
We thought him ours alone;
And were so proud to see him tread
The rounds of fame, and lift his head
Where sunlight ever shone;
But now our aching eyes are dim,
And look through tears in vain for him.

Name! Name! Name!
It was his diadem;
Nor ever tarnish-taint of shame
Could dim its luster -- like a flame
Reflected in a gem,
He wears it blazing on his brow
Within the courts of Heaven now.

Tears! Tears! Tears!
Like dews upon the leaf
That bursts at last -- from out the years
The blossom of a trust appears
That blooms above the grief;
And mother, brother, wife and child
Will see it and be reconciled.




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