Click Below for the acts of Riley's Cryptic Autobiographical Poem-Play
THE
FLYING ISLANDS OF THE NIGHT
In the cryptic poem-play that follows, James
Whitcomb Riley conceived the roles he could play in life as islands flying in
the night of his despair over the death of his beloved Nellie (Millikan) Cooley.
The roles were those of a jester, a poet of kenotic themes, and lover of the
dead beloved woman. Juxtaposed were Riley's intoxication
as
the Queen Crestillomeem (from "crestfallen" and "ill" with
"me" backwards and forwards) and the possibility that drove his life -
the possibility of becoming Krung, a King of American Poetry. The poem was
obscure and so personal it had escaped the notice of those most informed of
American literature until very recently.
Illustrations are taken from the famous Franklin Booth Edition of this work from 1913 as published by the Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, IN.
The cast of this play-poem represent Rley in his various disintegrated and potential soul-states "flying in the night of despair" over the loss of Nellie and the dead Nellie herself as "Dwainie."