AS GROWTH of form or momentary glance In a child's features will recall to mind The father's with the mother's face combin'd,-- Sweet interchange that memories still enhance: And yet, as childhood's years and youth's advance, The gradual mouldings leave one stamp behind, Till in the blended likeness now we find A separate man's or woman's countenance:-- So in the Song, the singer's Joy and Pain, Its very parents, evermore expand To bid the passion's fullgrown birth remain, By Art's transfiguring essence subtly spann'd; And from that song-cloud shaped as a man's hand There comes the sound as of abundant rain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONSECRATED GROUND; READ AT THE NEW YORK CITY HALL by EDWIN MARKHAM THE NAME OF JESUS by JOHN NEWTON THE PASSERS BY by AL-RADI BILLAH SONNET: HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE GOLDEN YEAR! by ALFRED AUSTIN I DID NOT ASK OF LIFE by ALICE BAKER |