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Friend Of A Wayward Hour

By James Whitcomb Riley

Topics: classic

Friend of a wayward hour, you came      Like some good ghost, and went the same;      And I within the haunted place      Sit smiling on your vanished face,         And talking with - your name.      But thrice the pressure of your hand -      First hail - congratulations - and      Your last "God bless you!" as the train      That brought you snatched you back again         Into the unknown land.      "God bless me?" Why, your very prayer      Was answered ere you asked it there,      I know - for when you came to lend      Me your kind hand, and call me friend,         God blessed me unaware.

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"Friend of a wayward hour, you came..."

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Author:James Whitcomb Riley

"Friend of a wayward hour, you came..." by James Whitcomb Riley

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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.

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