How healthily their feet upon the floor Strike down! These are no spirits, but a band Of children, surely, leaping hand in hand Into the air in groups of three and four, Wearing their silken rags as if they wore Leaves only and light grasses, or a strand Of black elusive seaweed oozing sand, And running hard as if along a shore. I know how lost forever, and at length How still these lovely tossing limbs shall lie, And the bright laughter and the panting breath; And yet, before such beauty and such strength, Once more, as always when the dance is high, I am rebuked that I believe in death. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 123 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI SONNET ON PIETRO REGGIO HIS SETTING TO MUSIC MR. COWLEY'S POEMS by PHILIP AYRES THE MONEY DIGGERS by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD ENCHANTED MACHINES by BERTON BRALEY TWO SONS by ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: A FANCY by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |