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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


OLE BULL by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE MINSTREL'S MYSTIC WAND
Last Line: THAT NOW IS THINE.
Subject(s): FORGIVENESS; MINSTRELS; CLEMENCY;

THE minstrel's mystic wand
Has fallen from his hand;
Stilled is the tuneful shell;
The airs he used to play
For us but yesterday
Have failed and died away
In sad farewell.

Forgive -- O noble heart,
Whose pure and gracious art
Enraptured, all these years,
Sang sweet, and sweeter yet
Above all sounds that fret,
And all sobs of regret --
Forgive our tears!

Forgive us, weeping thus
That thou art gone from us --
Because thy song divine,
Too, with the master, gone,
Leaves us to listen on
In silence till the dawn
That now is thine.



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