Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


DEATH IS DEAD by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: AND DID YOU KNOW OUR OLD FRIEND
Last Line: THE KIND OLD SOCKETS GREW FOREVER DIM.
Subject(s): DEATH; FANTASY; GHOSTS; SUPERNATURAL; DEAD, THE;

AND did you know our old friend Death is dead?
Ah me! he died last night; my ghost was there,
And all his phantom-friends from everywhere
Were sorrowfully grouped about his bed.
"I die; God help the living now!" he said
With such a ghastly pathos, I declare
The tears oozed from the blind eyes of the air
And spattered on his face in gouts of red.
And then he smiled -- the dear old bony smile
That glittered on us in that crazy whim
When first our daring feet leapt the defile
Of life and ran so eagerly to him:
And so he smiled upon us, even while
The kind old sockets grew forever dim.



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