Classic Poem

I

Once on a time, when sunny May
— Was kissing up the April showers,
I saw fair Childhood hard at play
— Upon a bank of blushing flowers:
Happy — he knew not whence or how, —
— And smiling, — who could choose but love him?
For not more glad than Childhood's brow,
— Was the blue heaven that beamed above him.

II

Old Time, in most appalling wrath,
— That valley's green repose invaded;
The brooks grew dry upon his path,
— The birds were mute, the lilies faded.
But Time so swiftly winged his flight,
— In haste a Grecian tomb to batter,
That Childhood watched his paper kite,
— And knew just nothing of the matter.

III

With curling lip and glancing eye
— Guilt gazed upon the scene a minute;
But Childhood's glance of purity
— Had such a holy spell within it,
That the dark demon to the air
— Spread forth again his baffled pinion,
And hid his envy and despair,
— Self-tortured, in his own dominion.

IV

Then stepped a gloomy phantom up,
— Pale, cypress-crowned, Night's awful daughter,
And proffered him a fearful cup
— Full to the brim of bitter water:
Poor Childhood bade her tell her name;
— And when the beldame muttered — " Sorrow,"
He said, — " Don't interrupt my game;
— I'll taste it, if I must, to-morrow."

V

The Muse of Pindus thither came,
— And wooed him with the softest numbers
That ever scattered wealth and fame
— Upon a youthful poet's slumbers;
Though sweet the music of the lay,
— To Childhood it was all a riddle,
And " Oh," he cried, " do send away
— That noisy woman with the fiddle!"

VI

Then Wisdom stole his bat and ball,
— And taught him, with most sage endeavour,
Why bubbles rise and acorns fall,
— And why no toy may last for ever.
She talked of all the wondrous laws
— Which Nature's open book discloses,
And Childhood, ere she made a pause,
— Was fast asleep among the roses.

VII

Sleep on, sleep on! Oh! Manhood's dreams
— Are all of earthly pain or pleasure,
Of Glory's toils, Ambition's schemes,
— Of cherished love, or hoarded treasure:
But to the couch where Childhood lies
— A more delicious trance is given,
Lit up by rays from seraph eyes,
— And glimpses of remembered Heaven!