There is sorrow in the household; There's a grief too hard to bear; There's a little cheek that's tear-stained; There's a sobbing baby there. And try how we will to comfort, Still the tiny teardrops come; For, to solve a vexing problem, Curly Locks has wrecked his drum. It had puzzled him and worried, How the drum created sound; For he couldn't understand it; It was not enough to pound With his tiny hands and drumsticks, And at last the day has come, When another hope is shattered; Now in ruins lies his drum. With his metal bank he broke it, Tore the tightened skin aside, Gazed on vacant space bewildered, Then he broke right down and cried. For the broken bubble shocked him And the baby tears must come; Now a joy has gone forever: Curly Locks has wrecked his drum. While his mother tries to soothe him, I am sitting here alone; In the life that lies behind me, Many shocks like that I've known. And the boy who's upstairs weeping, In the years that are to come Will learn that many pleasures Are as empty as his drum. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHAT THING A BIRD WOULD LOVE by ROBERT FROST TO A PRIZE BIRD by MARIANNE MOORE ON GEORGE HERBERT'S BOOK, THE TEMPLE, SENT TO A GENTLEWOMAN by RICHARD CRASHAW THE THREAD OF LIFE by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI VALENTINES TO MY MOTHER: 1885 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI SONG OF SLAVES IN THE DESERT by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER THE OLD MEN ADMIRING THEMSELVES IN THE WATER by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |