SO long you walked upon the selfsame way -- The crooked paths of many a night and day -- You, who have passed the pitfalls and the snares, Could you not warn me where I went astray? @3O child, did I not call -- my fears, my prayers Drowned in your laughter, jubilant and gay.@1 Now, from the happy heights whereon you stand, Why could you not have stretched a guiding hand, Or pointed but a pathway for my feet That stumbled blindly in this unlit land? @3O child, you found your gypsying so sweet, What, though I strove, you would not understand!@1 Nay, but some mark you might have left behind, Some token that my frightened eyes might find; Some little sign to bid me know and stay And find my pathway ere the day declined. @3O child, my feet were bleeding all the way, Yet to their stains so blind you were -- so blind!@1 Now, if some day I gain my goal indeed, Will I find solace for my want and need? Ah, surely never evil may befall As sore as these sad wounds wherewith I bleed! @3O child, you too must know the worst of all -- To cry to one beloved who will not heed.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN A RESTAURANT by SARA TEASDALE FONTENOY, 1745: 2. AFTER THE BATTLE, EARLY DAWN, CLARE COAST by EMILY LAWLESS ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 90 by PHILIP SIDNEY IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 25 by ALFRED TENNYSON PREFATORY POEM TO MY BROTHER'S SONNETS by ALFRED TENNYSON ODES: BOOK 2: ODE 15. ON DOMESTIC MANNERS (UNFINISHED) by MARK AKENSIDE |