Explore "Leonainie" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Leonainie -- Angels named her; / And they took the light / Of the laughing stars and framed her / In a smile of white; / And they made her hair of gloomy / Midnight, and her eyes of bloomy / Moonshine, and they brought her to me / In the solemn night. --
In a solemn night of summer, / When my heart of gloom / Blossomed up to greet the comer / Like a rose in bloom; / All forebodings that distressed me / I forgot as Joy caressed me -- / (LYING Joy! that caught and pressed me / In the arms of doom! )
Only spake the little lisper / In the Angel-tongue; / Yet I, listening, heard her whisper, -- / "Songs are only sung / Here below that they may grieve you -- / Tales but told you to deceive you, -- / So must Leonainie leave you / While her love is young."
Then God smiled and it was morning.
Matchless and supreme / Heaven's glory seemed adorning / Earth with its esteem: / Every heart but mine seemed gifted / With the voice of prayer, and lifted / Where my Leonainie drifted / From me like a dream.