I CAN recall the day When childhood died. I had grown thin and tall And eager-eyed. Such a false happiness Had seized me then; A child, I saw myself Man among men. Now I see that I was Ignorant, surprised, As one for the surgeon's knife Anæsthetized. So that I did not know What loomed before, Nor how, a child, I became A child no more. The world's sharpened knife Cut round my heart; Then something was taken And flung apart. I did not, could not know What had been done. Under some evil drug I lived as one At home in the seeming world; Then slowly came Through years and years to myself And was no more the same. I know now an ill thing was done To a young child By the world's wary knife Maimed and defiled. I can recall the day Almost without anger or pain, When childhood did not die But was slain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DAUGHTER OF DEBATE by ELIZABETH I THE RIVER IN THE MEADOWS by LEONIE ADAMS FALL PLOWING by EVA K. ANGLESBURG THE PENDULUM by JURGIS BALTRUSHAITIS THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE WALNUT-TREE OF BOARSTELL: CANTO 3 by WILLIAM BASSE KNAPWEED by ARTHUR CHRISTOPHER BENSON THE WATERMILL by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |