Public Domain Poetry And Stories - A Letter To A Friend by James Whitcomb Riley
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A Letter To A Friend

    By James Whitcomb Riley



    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.



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