Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


WE TO SIGH INSTEAD OF SING by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: RAIN AND RAIN! AND RAIN AND
Last Line: THIS FOR OUR TO-MORROW!
Subject(s): RAIN; SIGHS; SINGING & SINGERS;

"RAIN and rain! and rain and rain!"
Yesterday we muttered
Grimly as the grim refrain
That the thunders uttered:
All the heavens under cloud --
All the sunshine sleeping;
All the grasses limply bowed
With their weight of weeping.

Sigh and sigh! and sigh and sigh!
Never end of sighing;
Rain and rain for our reply --
Hopes half drowned and dying;
Peering through the window-pane,
Naught but endless raining --
Endless sighing, and, as vain,
Endlessly complaining.

Shine and shine! and shine and shine!
Ah! to-day the splendor! --
All this glory yours and mine --
God! but God is tender!
We to sigh instead of sing,
@3Yesterday,@1 in sorrow,
While the Lord was fashioning
This for our To-morrow!



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