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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

I SAW THEE CHILD ONE SUMMER'S DAY by EMILY JANE BRONTE

Poet Analysis

Subject(s): CHILDREN; TIME; FEAR; CHILDHOOD;
I SAW thee child one summer day
Suddenly leave my cheerful play
And in the green grass lowly lying
I listened to thy mournful sighing


I knew the wish that waked that wail
I knew the source whence sprung those tears
You longed for fate to raise the veil
That darkened over coming years


The anxious prayer was heard and power
Was given me in that silent hour
To open to an infants eye
The portals of futurity


But child of dust the fragrant flowers
The bright blue flowers and velvet sod
Were strange conductors to the bowers
Thy daring footsteps must have trod


I watched my time and summer passed
And Autumn waneing fleeted by
And doleful winter nights at last
In cloudy morning clothed the sky


And now its come this evening fell
Not stormily but stilly drear
A sound sweeps o'er thee like a knell
To banish joy and welcome care


A fluttering blast that shakes the leaves
And whistles round the gloomy wall
And lingering long thinking greives
For ' t is the spectres call


He hears me what a sudden start
Sent the blood icy to the heart
He wakens and how ghastly white
That face looks in the dim lamp light


Those tiny hands in vain essay
To brush the shadowy feind away
There is a horror on his brow
An anguish in his bosom now


A fearful anguish in his eyes.
Fixed strainedly on the vacant air
Hoarsly bursts in long drawn sighs
His panting breath enchained by fear


Poor child if spirits such as I
Could weep o'er human misery
A tear might flow aye many a tear
To see the head that lies before
To see the sunshine disappear
And hear the stormy waters roar
Breaking upon a desolate shore
Cut off from hope in early day
From earth and glory cut away
But it is doomed and Mornings light
Must image forth the scowl of night
And childhoods flower must waste its bloom
Beneath the shadow of the tomb




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