Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


A CHILD-WORLD by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

Poet Analysis

First Line: THE CHILD WORLD - LONG AND LONG SINCE LOST TO VIEW
Last Line: I SHOULD NOT BE SURPRISED.
Subject(s): FANTASY; SOUL;

@3THE Child-World -- long and long since lost to view --
A Fairy Paradise! --
How always fair it was and fresh and new --
How every affluent hour heaped heart and eyes
With treasures of surprise!@1

@3Enchantments tangible: The under-brink
Of dawns that launched the sight
Up seas of gold: The dewdrop on the pink,
With all the green earth in it and blue height
Of heavens infinite:@1

@3The liquid, dripping songs of orchard-birds --
The wee bass of the bees, --
With lucent deeps of silence afterwards;
The gay, clandestine whisperings of the breeze
And glad leaves of the trees.@1

. . . . . . . . . . .

@3O Child-World: After this world -- just as when
I found you first sufficed
My soulmost need -- if I found you again,
With all my childish dream so realized,
I should not be surprised.@1



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