 | The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley |  |
677
THE OLD SCHOOL-CHUM
He puts the poem by, to say
His eyes are not themselves to-day!
His eyes are not themselves to-day!
A sudden glamour o'er his sight—
A something vague, indefinite—
A something vague, indefinite—
An oft-recurring blur that blinds
The printed meaning of the lines,
The printed meaning of the lines,
And leaves the mind all dusk and dim
In swimming darkness—strange to him!
In swimming darkness—strange to him!
It is not childishness, I guess,—
Yet something of the tenderness
Yet something of the tenderness
That used to wet his lashes when
A boy seems troubling him again;—
A boy seems troubling him again;—
The old emotion, sweet and wild,
That drove him truant when a child,
That drove him truant when a child,
That he might hide the tears that fell
Above the lesson—“Little Nell.”
Above the lesson—“Little Nell.”
678
And so it is he puts aside
The poem he has vainly tried
The poem he has vainly tried
To follow; and, as one who sighs
In failure, through a poor disguise
In failure, through a poor disguise
Of smiles, he dries his tears, to say
His eyes are not themselves to-day.
His eyes are not themselves to-day.
| The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley | |