There was a house where an old dame Lived with a son, his child and wife; And with a son of fifty years, An idiot all his life. When others wept this idiot laughed, When others laughed he then would weep; The married pair took oath his eyes Did never close in sleep Death came that way, and which, think you, Fell under that old tyrant's spell? He breathed upon that little child, Who loved her life so well. This made the idiot chuckle hard: The old dame looked at that child dead And him she loved -- 'Ah, well; thank God It is no worse!' she said. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NOVEMBER BLUE by ALICE MEYNELL FOUR PRELUDES ON PLAYTHINGS OF THE WIND by CARL SANDBURG BOY BRITTAN [FEBRUARY 8, 1862] by BYRON FORCEYTHE WILLSON THE ASS IN THE LION'S SKIN by AESOP TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF CHARLES VINE DE PUY by LEVI BISHOP A NEW PILGRIMAGE: 39 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT CHRISTMAS ROSE by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN |