Classic Poem

PROEM

THE Child-World — long and long since lost to view —
A Fairy Paradise! —
How always fair it was and fresh and new —
How every affluent hour heaped heart and eyes
With treasures of surprise!

Enchantments tangible: The under-brink
Of dawns that launched the sight
Up seas of gold: The dewdrop on the pink,
With all the green earth in it and blue height
Of heavens infinite:

The liquid, dripping songs of orchard-birds —
The wee bass of the bees , —
With lucent deeps of silence afterwards;
The gay, clandestine whisperings of the breeze
And glad leaves of the trees .

...

O Child-World: After this world — just as when
I found you first sufficed
My soulmost need — if I found you again,
With all my childish dream so realized,
I should not be surprised .