[Skip Navigation]

Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

A Life Lesson

James Whitcomb Riley

There! little girl! don’t cry!
  They have broken your doll, I know;
    And your tea-set blue,
    And your play-house, too,
  Are things of long ago;
But childish troubles will soon pass by,
       There! little girl! don’t cry!

There! little girl! don’t cry!
  They have broken your slate, I know;
    And the glad wild ways
    Of your school-girl days
  Are things of the long ago;
But life and love will soon come by,
       There! little girl! don’t cry!

There! little girl! don’t cry!
  They have broken your heart, I know;
    And the rainbow gleams
    Of your youthful dreams
  Are things of the long ago;
But heaven holds all for which you sigh,
       There! little girl! don’t cry!
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Required Poems for Reading and Memorizing: Third and Fourth Grades, Prescribed by State Courses of Study | 1920
Add Keyword Tags

Separate each tag with a space. You may add as many tags as you'd like to each poem.

What are tags?
Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

More Info

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any Internet device.