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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A CHILD'S QUESTION, by EMMA HUNTINGTON NASON First Line: What is it to be dead?' o life Last Line: My soul this day hath tasted death! | |||
"WHAT is it to be dead?" O Life, Close-held within my own, What foul breath in the air is rife? What voice malign, unknown, Hath dared this whisper faint and dread, "What is -- what is it to be dead?" Who told you that the song-bird died? They had no right to say This to my child -- I know we cried When Robin "went away;" But this strange thing we never said, That what we loved so could be dead. Give me your hands, my only boy! Health throbs in every vein; Thou hast not dreamed of earth's alloy, Nor stepped where guilt has lain; O sweet young life! O baby breath! What hast thou now to do with death? I even framed for thy dear sake Anew the childish prayer, Lest, "If I die before I wake," Should rouse a thought or care. Mother of Christ, was this a sin -- To watch where death might enter in? Too late! The Angel of the Flame Relentless cries: "Go hence!" I think of Eden's sin and shame; I gaze -- on innocence! And still the curse? Must I arise And lead my own from Paradise! I see the wide, the awful world Loom up beyond the gate; I see his pure soul tossed and whirled -- My child! I pray thee wait! Ask me not what the Angel saith; My soul this day hath tasted death! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WISE WOMAN by SARA TEASDALE SOTTO VOCE; TO EDWARD THOMAS by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE SHAMEFUL DEATH by WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896) DRINKING SONG, FR. THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL by RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN THE AGED LOVER RENOUNCETH LOVE by THOMAS VAUX FAREWELL TO ARRAS by ADAM DE LA HALLE |
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