Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume I. Of Home: of Friendship. 1904. | | | | Poems of Home: IV. Youth | | Honey Dripping from the Comb | | James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) |
| | | HOW slight a thing may set one’s fancy drifting | |
| Upon the dead sea of the Past!—A view— | |
| Sometimes an odor—or a rooster lifting | |
| A far-off “Ooh! ooh-ooh!” | |
| |
| And suddenly we find ourselves astray | 5 |
| In some wood’s-pasture of the Long Ago,— | |
| Or idly dream again upon a day | |
| Of rest we used to know. | |
| |
| I bit an apple but a moment since,— | |
| A wilted apple that the worm had spurned,— | 10 |
| Yet hidden in the taste were happy hints | |
| Of good old days returned. | |
| |
| And so my heart, like some enraptured lute, | |
| Tinkles a tune so tender and complete, | |
| God’s blessing must be resting on the fruit— | 15 |
| So bitter, yet so sweet! | | | | |
|
|
