Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WRITTEN ON SEEING HER TWO SONS AT PLAY, by HENRIETTA O'NEILL First Line: Sweet age of blest illusion! Blooming boys Last Line: Where grief is sure, but happiness deceit! Alternate Author Name(s): Boyle, Henrietta Subject(s): Play; Sons | ||||||||
SWEET age of blest illusion! blooming boys, Ah! revel long in childhood's thoughtless joys, With light and pliant spirits, that can stoop To follow, sportively, the rolling hoop; To watch the sleeping top with gay delight, Or mark, with raptured gaze, the sailing kite; Or, eagerly pursuing Pleasure's call, Can find it centred in the bounding ball! Alas! the day will come, when sports like these Must lose their magic, and their power to please; Too swiftly fled, the rosy hours of youth Shall yield their fairy-charms to mournful Truth; Even now, a mother's fond prophetic fear Sees the dark train of human ills appear; Views various fortune for each lovely child, Storms for the bold, and anguish for the mild; Beholds already those expressive eyes Beam a sad certainty of future sighs; And dreads each suffering those dear breasts may know In their long passage through a world of woe: Perchance predestined every pang to prove, That treacherous friends inflict, or faithless love; For, ah! how few have found existence sweet, Where grief is sure, but happiness deceit! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LATEST INJURY by SHARON OLDS PRAYER DURING A TIME MY SON IS HAVING SEIZURES by SHARON OLDS TWO SONGS OF PEACE: 1 by YEHUDA AMICHAI THE SMALLISH SON by HAYDEN CARRUTH SARAH'S PROMISE by LUCILLE CLIFTON ANY MAN'S ADVICE TO HIS SON by KENNETH FEARING THE RIGHTFUL ONE by DAVID IGNATOW THE SAGA OF THE SMALL-BREASTED WOMAN by KAREN SWENSON |
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