BOUND and bordered in leaf-green, Edged with trellised buds and flowers And glad Summer-gold, with clean White and purple morning-glories Such as suit the songs and stories Of this book of ours, Unrevised in text or scene, -- The Book of Joyous Children. Wild and breathless in their glee -- Lawless rangers of all ways Winding through lush greenery Of Elysian vales -- the viny, Bowery groves of shady, shiny Haunts of childish days. Spread and read again with me The Book of Joyous Children. What a whir of wings, and what Sudden drench of dews upon The young brows, wreathed, all unsought, With the apple-blossom garlands Of the poets of those far lands Whence all dreams are drawn Set herein and soiling not The Book of Joyous Children. In their blithe companionship Taste again, these pages through, The hot honey on your lip Of the sun-smit wild strawberry, Or the chill tart of the cherry; Kneel, all glowing, to The cool spring, and with it sip The Book of Joyous Children. As their laughter needs no rule, So accept their language, pray. -- Touch it not with any tool: Surely we may understand it, -- As the heart has parsed or scanned it Is a worthy way, Though found not in any School The Book of Joyous Children. Be a truant -- know no place Of prison under heaven's rim! Front the Father's smiling face -- Smiling, that @3you@1 smile the brighter For the heavy hearts made lighter, Since you smile with Him. Take -- and thank Him for His grace -- The Book of Joyous Children. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...NAPOLEON by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE HERTHA by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE NORTHERN FARMER, OLD STYLE by ALFRED TENNYSON BARBARA FRIETCHIE [SEPTEMBER 13, 1862] by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER SONNET TO A FRIEND, ON HIS SECOND MARRIAGE by BERNARD BARTON A STRANGER IN SEYTHOPOLIS by KATHARINE LEE BATES |