Explore "If I Knew what Poets Know" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
If I knew what poets know, / Would I write a rhyme / Of the buds that never blow / In the summer-time?
Would I sing of golden seeds / Springing up in ironweeds?
And of rain-drops turned to snow, / If I knew what poets know?
Did I know what poets do, / Would I sing a song / Sadder than the pigeon's coo / When the days are long?
Where I found a heart in pain, / I would make it glad again; / And the false should be the true, / Did I know what poets do.
If I knew what poets know, / I would find a theme / Sweeter than the placid flow / Of the fairest dream: / I would sing of love that lives / On the errors it forgives; / And the world would better grow / If I knew what poets know.