Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LOVE AND THE CHILD by FRANCIS THOMPSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHY DO YOU SO CLASP ME
Last Line: AND THAT CHILD EVEN I.'
Subject(s): CHILDREN; CHILDHOOD;
'WHY do you so clasp me,
And draw me to your knee?
Forsooth, you do but chafe me,
I pray you let me be:
I will be loved but now and then
When it liketh me!'

So I heard a young child,
A thwart child, a young child
Rebellious against love's arms,
Make its peevish cry.

To the tender God I turn: --
'Pardon, Love most High!
For I think those arms were even Thine,
And that child even I.'



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