Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CHARM, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CHARM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: The voice of innocence I heard
Last Line: I'll hear the voice of innocence.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund
Subject(s): Innocence


THE voice of innocence I heard
Answering some young frightened bird,
Or perhaps it talked alone
Of the rainbow sign then shown.

Then I heard it at the green,
Where they filled their buckets clean,
Where the lame child shouted past
In hare-and-hounds, not least though last.

Innocence, your voice! again
Where a dozen labouring men
Brought their royallest flowers and fruit
To church, I heard -- an angel's flute.

Thus this heaven-prevailing charm
Came my way by lane and farm
Till it seemed a common thing:
Then the unseen bliss took wing.

But some day this joy again
Will come and with such fullness then
That even in smothered holes of homes
Where dusty sunlight scarcely comes,

In ugly brawl or leering lust,
In hopes long left to hopeless rust,
In Meshech mills or Kedar's tents
I'll hear the voice of innocence.





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