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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CHILD IN ME, by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH First Line: She follows me about my house of life Last Line: And smiling, pass together through the door! Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Mary Louise Riley | |||
She follows me about my House of Life (This happy little ghost of my dead Youth!) She has no part in Time's relentless strife She keeps her old simplicity and truth -- And laughs at grim Mortality, This deathless Child that stays with me -- (This happy little ghost of my dead Youth!) My House of Life is weather-stained with years -- (O Child in Me, I wonder why you stay.) Its windows are bedimmed with rain of tears, The walls have lost their rose, its thatch is gray. One after one its guests depart, So dull a host is my old heart. (O Child in Me, I wonder why you stay!) For jealous Age, whose face I would forget, Pulls the bright flowers you bring me from my hair And powders it with snow; and yet -- and yet I love your dancing feet and jocund air. I have no taste for caps of lace To tie about my faded face -- I love to wear your flowers in my hair. O Child in Me, leave not my House of Clay Until we pass together through the Door, When lights are out, and Life has gone away And we depart to come again no more. We comrades who have traveled far Will hail the Twilight and the Star, And smiling, pass together through the Door! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SOMETIME by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH TIRED MOTHERS by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH DEPARTURE by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH HIS BIRTHDAY by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH IN PRISON by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH LET THE LITTLE ONES COME UNTO ME by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH MY MOTHER by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH MY UNINVITED GUEST by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH SOMETHING BETTER by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH THE ROAD IS SO LONESOME BETWEEN by MAY LOUISE RILEY SMITH |
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