Explore "Nessmuk" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I hail thee, Nessmuk, for the lofty tone / Yet simple grace that marks thy poetry!
True forester thou art, and still to be, / Even in happier fields than thou hast known.
Thus, in glad visions, glimpses am I shown / Of groves delectable -- "preserves" for thee -- / Ranged but by friends of thine -- I name thee three: --
First, Chaucer, with his bald old pate new-grown / With changeless laurel; next, in Lincoln-green, / Gold-belted, bowed and bugled, Robin Hood; / And next, Ike Walton, patient and serene: / These three, O Nessmuk, gathered hunter-wise, / Are camped on hither slopes of Paradise / To hail thee first and greet thee, as they should.