Innocent child and snow-white flower! Well are ye paired in your opening hour. Thus should the pure and the lovely meet, Stainless with stainless, and sweet with sweet. White as those leaves, just blown apart; Are the folds of thy own young heart; Guilty passion and cankering care Never have left their traces there. Artless one! though thou gazest now O'er the white blossom with earnest brow, Soon will it tire thy childish eye; Fair as it is, thou wilt throw it by. Throw it aside in thy weary hour, Throw to the ground the fair white flower; Yet, as thy tender years depart, Keep that white and innocent heart. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH: A DREAM OF PONCE DE LEON by HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH MARIA WENTWORTH by THOMAS CAREW AT CANDLE-LIGHTIN' TIME by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR SLEEP AT SEA by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI TWO KINDS OF RICHES by WILLIAM BLAKE MY WINDOW by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN ON THE MARRIAGE OF THOMAS KILLIGREW & CECILIA CROFTS: MORNING STORMY by THOMAS CAREW |