Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE RIVAL by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: I SO LOVED ONCE, WHEN DEATH CAME BY I HID
Last Line: IN LOVE WITH DEATH, NOT ME.
Subject(s): COMPETITION; DEATH; LOVE; DEAD, THE;
I SO loved once, when Death came by I hid
Away my face,
And all my sweetheart's tresses she undid
To make my hiding-place.

The dread shade passed me thus unheeding; and
I turned me then
To calm my love -- kiss down her shielding hand
And comfort her again.

And lo! she answered not: And she did sit
All fixedly,
With her fair face and the sweet smile of it,
In love with Death, not me.



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