Skip to content
Linespedia

For You

By James Whitcomb Riley

Topics: classic

For you, I could forget the gay      Delirium of merriment,     And let my laughter die away      In endless silence of content.         I could forget, for your dear sake,         The utter emptiness and ache         Of every loss I ever knew. -         What could I not forget for you?     I could forget the just deserts      Of mine own sins, and so erase     The tear that burns, the smile that hurts,      And all that mars or masks my face.         For your fair sake I could forget         The bonds of life that chafe and fret,         Nor care if death were false or true. -         What could I not forget for you?     What could I not forget? Ah me!      One thing, I know, would still abide     Forever in my memory,      Though all of love were lost beside -         I yet would feel how first the wine         Of your sweet lips made fools of mine         Until they sung, all drunken through -         "What could I not forget for you?"

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"For you, I could forget the gay..."

"For You" is a quintessential example of James Whitcomb Riley's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Attribution & Rights

Author:James Whitcomb Riley

"For you, I could forget the gay..." 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.