You mustn't smile when I stroke your hair, not yours to be proud of, this hair isn't yours: If your mother hadn't liked your father, your two grandmothers your two grandfathers, your four great-grandmothers your four great-grandfathers, your eight great-great-grandmothers your eight great-great-grandfathers: well: when you grow up, and you like a boy, and you two grow down, you two have a child: and that child a child, that child a child, child a child, child a great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild: well, what are you smiling at now? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ZION, OR THE CITY OF GOD by JOHN NEWTON ECLOGUE ON ELIZABETH BELSHAM by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE BRONZE STATUE OF NAPOLEON by AUGUSTE BARBIER LILIES: 28. NOW by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE FOUNTAIN OF PITY by HENRY BATAILLE VOLATUS TRIUMPHANS by LUCIUS MORRIS BEEBE A WEDDING MARCH by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT SONG, FR. A VISION OF GIOGIONE: GEMMA'S SONG ON THE WATER by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |