Puny as a breath, a soul, The turnkey's orphan girl Rambles about the prison-hole— Innocence with golden curl. She's just five years old; and pale Her shoulders under her rags appear; Being free, she fills the jail With bursts of laughter and cheer. One old fellow serving time Makes toys her happy fingers seize; Youthful vice and elder crime Hold her on their knees. And, recalling the mandragora Where the gallows fronts the sky, More bewitching still are the ways of her The days a man must die. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PAST AND PRESENT by ROWLAND EYLES EGERTON-WARBURTON THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK by THOMAS STEARNS ELIOT DAYBREAK by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW A RECEIPT TO CURE THE VAPOURS by MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU THE STEAM-ENGINE: CANTO 6. ON THE CORK PACKET, 1837 by T. BAKER OSTRA by ELLEN FRANCES BALDWIN THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN: 7. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA by GEOFFREY CHAUCER AN EPISTLE: ADDRESSED TO SIR THOMAS HAMNER (2) (VARIANT TEXT) by WILLIAM COLLINS (1721-1759) |