Sees forms appear and disappear, From birth to death, from death to birth, Of things, unseen before Unto his wondering eyes reveal The Universe, as an immeasurable wheel Turning forevermore In the rapid and rushing river of Time. 66 TO A CHILD. This poem was begun October 2, 1845, and on the 13th of the next month Mr. Longfellow noted in his diary: "Walked in the garden and tried to finish the Ode to a Child; but could not find the exact expressions I wanted, to round and complete the whole." After the publication of the volume containing it, he wrote: The poem To a Child and The Old Clock on the Stairs seem to be the favorites. This is the best answer to my assailants." Possibly the charge was made then as frequently afterward that his poetry was an echo of foreign scenes. It is at any rate noticeable that in this poem he first strongly expressed that domestic sentiment which was to be so conspicuous in his after work. It will be remembered that he was married to Miss Appleton in July, 1843, and his second child was born at the time when he was writing this ode. Five years later he made the following entry in his diary: "Some years ago, writing an Ode to a Child, I spoke of The buried treasures of the miser, Time. What was my astonishment to-day, in reading for the first time in my life Wordsworth's beautiful ode On the Power of Sound, to read All treasures hoarded by the miser Time." DEAR child! how radiant on thy mother's knee, With merry-making eyes and jocund smiles, Thou gazest at the painted tiles, ! With many a grotesque form and face, And, leaning idly o'er his gate, With what a look of proud command The coral rattle with its silver bells, Thousands of years in Indian seas Reposed of yore, As shapeless ore, Far down in the deep-sunken wells In some obscure and sunless place, Beneath a burning, tropic clime, The Indian peasant, chasing the wild goat, Himself as swift and wild, In falling, clutched the frail arbute, The buried treasures of the miser, Time. But, lo! thy door is left ajar! Thou hearest footsteps from afar! Thou turnest round With quick and questioning eyes, Like one, who, in a foreign land, Some source of wonder and surprise! And, restlessly, impatiently, Thou strivest, strugglest, to be free. The four walls of thy nursery Are now like prison walls to thee. No more thy mother's smiles, No more the painted tiles, Delight thee, nor the playthings on the floor, That won thy little, beating heart before; Thou strugglest for the open door. Through these once solitary halls Thy pattering footstep falls. Jubilant, and they rejoice No shadows of sadness From the sombre background of memory start. Once, ah, once, within these walls, Yes, within this very room But what are these grave thoughts to thee? Thy only dream is liberty, Thou carest little how or where. Now shouting to the apples on the tree, Along the garden walks, The tracks of thy small carriage-wheels I trace; And see at every turn how they efface Above the cavernous and secret homes Of wandering and nomadic tribes of ants. Ah, cruel little Tamerlane, Who, with thy dreadful reign, Dost persecute and overwhelm These hapless Troglodytes of thy realm! What! tired already! with those suppliant looks, O child! O new-born denizen Here at the portal thou dost stand, And with thy little hand Thou openest the mysterious gate I see its valves expand, As at the touch of Fate! Into those realms of love and hate, |