There was a house where an old dame Lived with a son, his child and wife; And with a son of fifty years, An idiot all his life. When others wept this idiot laughed, When others laughed he then would weep; The married pair took oath his eyes Did never close in sleep Death came that way, and which, think you, Fell under that old tyrant's spell? He breathed upon that little child, Who loved her life so well. This made the idiot chuckle hard: The old dame looked at that child dead And him she loved -- 'Ah, well; thank God It is no worse!' she said. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OLD KING COLE by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON A VOICE FOR EDWARD by GLEN BLANCH WINTER: EAST ANGLIA by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN MY SON'S SON TO HIS SON'S SON - PERHAPS by MABEL RUTHERFORD BRIDGES THE BATTLE-FIELD OF RASZYN by KAZIMIERZ BRODZINSKI AN ELEGY ON SIR THOMAS OVERBURY; POISONED IN THE TOWER OF LONDON by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |