Classic and Contemporary Poetry
I SAW THEE CHILD ONE SUMMER'S DAY, by EMILY JANE BRONTE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography Alternate Author Name(s): Bell, Ellis Subject(s): Children; Time; Fear; Childhood | ||||||||
I SAW thee child one summer day Suddenly leave my cheerful play And in the green grass lowly lying I listened to thy mournful sighing I knew the wish that waked that wail I knew the source whence sprung those tears You longed for fate to raise the veil That darkened over coming years The anxious prayer was heard and power Was given me in that silent hour To open to an infants eye The portals of futurity But child of dust the fragrant flowers The bright blue flowers and velvet sod Were strange conductors to the bowers Thy daring footsteps must have trod I watched my time and summer passed And Autumn waneing fleeted by And doleful winter nights at last In cloudy morning clothed the sky And now its come this evening fell Not stormily but stilly drear A sound sweeps o'er thee like a knell To banish joy and welcome care A fluttering blast that shakes the leaves And whistles round the gloomy wall And lingering long thinking greives For ' t is the spectres call He hears me what a sudden start Sent the blood icy to the heart He wakens and how ghastly white That face looks in the dim lamp light Those tiny hands in vain essay To brush the shadowy feind away There is a horror on his brow An anguish in his bosom now A fearful anguish in his eyes. Fixed strainedly on the vacant air Hoarsly bursts in long drawn sighs His panting breath enchained by fear Poor child if spirits such as I Could weep o'er human misery A tear might flow aye many a tear To see the head that lies before To see the sunshine disappear And hear the stormy waters roar Breaking upon a desolate shore Cut off from hope in early day From earth and glory cut away But it is doomed and Mornings light Must image forth the scowl of night And childhoods flower must waste its bloom Beneath the shadow of the tomb | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THREE CHILDREN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN CHILDREN SELECTING BOOKS IN A LIBRARY by RANDALL JARRELL COME TO THE STONE ... by RANDALL JARRELL THE LOST WORLD by RANDALL JARRELL A SICK CHILD by RANDALL JARRELL CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS ON THE DEATH OF FRIENDS IN CHILDHOOD by DONALD JUSTICE THE POET AT SEVEN by DONALD JUSTICE A DAY DREAM by EMILY JANE BRONTE |
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