Explore "Elizabeth. May 1, 1891" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I. Elizabeth! Elizabeth!
The first May-morning whispereth / Thy gentle name in every breeze / That lispeth through the young-leaved trees, / New raimented in white and green / Of bloom and leaf to crown thee queen; -- / And, as in odorous chorus, all / The orchard-blossoms sweetly call / Even as a singing voice that saith / Elizabeth! Elizabeth!
II. Elizabeth! Lo, lily-fair, / In deep, cool shadows of thy hair, / Thy face maintaineth its repose. -- / Is it, O sister of the rose, / So better, sweeter, blooming thus / Than in this briery world with us? -- / Where frost o'ertaketh, and the breath / Of biting winter harrieth / With sleeted rains and blighting snows / All fairest blooms -- Elizabeth!
III. Nay, then! -- So reign, Elizabeth, / Crowned, in thy May-day realm of death!
Put forth the scepter of thy love / In every star-tipped blossom of / The grassy dais of thy throne!
Sadder are we, thus left alone, / But gladder they that thrill to see / Thy mother's rapture, greeting thee.
Bereaved are we by life -- not death -- / Elizabeth! Elizabeth!