THREE times have I beheld Fear leap in a babe's face, and take his breath, Fear, like the fear of eld That knows the price of life, the name of death. What is it justifies This thing, this dread, this fright that has no tongue, The terror in those eyes When only eyes can speak -- they are so young? Not yet those eyes had wept. What does fear cherish that it locks so well? What fortress is thus kept? Of what is ignorant terror sentinel? And pain in the poor child, Monstrously disproportionate, and dumb In the poor beast, and wild In the old decorous man, caught, overcome? Of what the outposts these? Of what the fighting guardians? What demands That sense of menaces, And then such flying feet, imploring hands? Life: There's nought else to seek; Life only, little prized; but by design Of nature prized. How weak, How sad, how brief! O how divine, divine! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DIRGE FOR A SOLDIER [SEPTEMBER 1, 1862] by GEORGE HENRY BOKER SONNET (ON AN OLD BOOK WITH UNCUT LEAVES) by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR CALLER HERRIN' by CAROLINA OLIPHANT NAIRNE UNDERSTANDING by NIXON WATERMAN ODE TO THE CONNECTICUT RIVER by JOSIAS LYNDON ARNOLD SONNET: 4 by RICHARD BARNFIELD |