Skip to content
Linespedia

A Letter To A Friend

By James Whitcomb Riley

Topics: classic

The past is like a story      I have listened to in dreams      That vanished in the glory      Of the Morning's early gleams;      And - at my shadow glancing -      I feel a loss of strength,      As the Day of Life advancing      Leaves it shorn of half its length.      But it's all in vain to worry      At the rapid race of Time -      And he flies in such a flurry      When I trip him with a rhyme,      I'll bother him no longer      Than to thank you for the thought      That "my fame is growing stronger      As you really think it ought."      And though I fall below it,      I might know as much of mirth      To live and die a poet      Of unacknowledged worth;      For Fame is but a vagrant -      Though a loyal one and brave,      And his laurels ne'er so fragrant      As when scattered o'er the grave.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"The past is like a story..."

James Whitcomb Riley's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "A Letter To A Friend"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:James Whitcomb Riley

"The past is like a story..." by James Whitcomb Riley

For usage rights, copyright concerns, or to report an issue with this content, please visit our Copyright & Report page.

Related lines

"Writ in between the lines of his life-deed         We trace the sacred service of a heart         Answering the Divine command, in every par"

"Crowd about me, little children -         Come and cluster 'round my knee     While I tell a little story         That happened once with me."

"O the night was dark and the night was late,         And the robbers came to rob him;      And they picked the locks of his palace-gate,"

"O her beautiful eyes! they are as blue as the dew         On the violet's bloom when the morning is new,         And the light of their love"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

James Whitcomb Riley

About James Whitcomb Riley

James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916) was an American poet known as the "Hoosier Poet." His dialect poems—including "Little Orphant Annie" and "When the Frost Is on the Punkin"—celebrate rural Indiana life and childhood nostalgia.

Full Bibliography
Continue Reading

"Writ in between the lines of his life-deed        ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.