Explore "Tom Van Arden" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Tom Van Arden, my old friend, / Our warm fellowship is one / Far too old to comprehend / Where its bond was first begun: / Mirage-like before my gaze / Gleams a land of other days, / Where two truant boys, astray, / Dream their lazy lives away.
There's a vision, in the guise / Of Midsummer, where the Past / Like a weary beggar lies / In the shadow Time has cast; / And as blends the bloom of trees / With the drowsy hum of bees, / Fragrant thoughts and murmurs blend, / Tom Van Arden, my old friend.