How healthily their feet upon the floor Strike down! These are no spirits, but a band Of children, surely, leaping hand in hand Into the air in groups of three and four, Wearing their silken rags as if they wore Leaves only and light grasses, or a strand Of black elusive seaweed oozing sand, And running hard as if along a shore. I know how lost forever, and at length How still these lovely tossing limbs shall lie, And the bright laughter and the panting breath; And yet, before such beauty and such strength, Once more, as always when the dance is high, I am rebuked that I believe in death. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENVOYS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE CANTERBURY TALES: THE GENERAL PROLOGUE by GEOFFREY CHAUCER THE PERSIANS (PERSAE): XERXES DEFEATED by AESCHYLUS WOODEN WHEELS by LOWELL C. BALLARD IN VINCULIS; SONNETS WRITTEN IN AN IRISH PRISON: HONOUR DISHONOURED by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE REED by AUDREY ALEXANDRA BROWN |