ALL holy influences dwell within The breast of Childhood: instincts fresh from God Inspire it, ere the heart beneath the rod Of grief hath bled, or caught the plague of sin. How mighty was that fervour which could win Its way to infant souls! -- and was the sod Of Palestine by infant Croises trod? Like Joseph went they forth, or Benjamin, In all their touching beauty to redeem? And did their soft lips kiss the Sepulchre? Alas! the lovely pageant as a dream Faded! They sank not through ignoble fear; They felt not Moslem steel. By mountain, stream, In sands, in fens, they died -- no mother near! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TANGENTIAL by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE PURPLE COW by FRANK GELETT BURGESS TO SCIENCE; SONNET by EDGAR ALLAN POE WHAT THE BIRDS SAID by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE MORAL FABLES: THE SWALLOW, AND THE OTHER BIRDS by AESOP A POEM, DEDICATED TO WILLIAM LAW, PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY by ROBERT BLAIR |