CHILDREN, dear children, when I look upon your faces Lo! all the hidden griefs, the sorrows and the vain imaginings, The longings, and the desperate struggles and hatreds, The jealousies, angers—and the sudden joys, breaking the heart's doors open— Pass in dumb show before me. Like figures in a dream I see them there gesticulating—behind a veil, in silence. And still you move to your daily ways and works, seeming so unconcerned—as I to mine— And still the waves of Time wash down between us, And soon shall wash even you and all your dreams Into the void—and mine. But even so, dear children, I forebode Deliverance; Some better thing than all our dreams and longings: One Life—and all these images in their strange procession, Its mystic intimation. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WRITTEN IN KEATS' 'ENDYMION' by THOMAS HOOD A FUNERAL CHANT FOR THE OLD YEAR by E. JUSTINE BAYARD PORTRAIT SONNETS: 1 by HENRY BELLAMANN SINCERITIES by WILLIAM ROSE BENET ON THE DEATH OF AN INFANT OF FIVE DAYS OLD by ELIZABETH BOYD |