Explore "Harlie" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Fold the little waxen hands / Lightly. Let your warmest tears / Speak regrets, but never fears, -- / Heaven understands!
Let the sad heart, o'er the tomb, / Lift again and burst in bloom / Fragrant with a prayer as sweet / As the lily at your feet.
Bend and kiss the folded eyes -- / They are only feigning sleep / While their truant glances peep / Into Paradise.
See, the face, though cold and white, / Holds a hint of some delight / E'en with Death, whose finger-tips / Rest upon the frozen lips.
When, within the years to come, / Vanished echoes live once more -- / Pattering footsteps on the floor, / And the sounds of home, -- / Let your arms in fancy fold / Little Harlie as of old -- / As of old and as he waits / At the City's golden gates.