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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
STARKEST TRAGEDY, by VAN CHANDLER
First Line: A boy seems idle while at childish play
Last Line: If men are prone to lose the boyhood call.
Subject(s): Aging; Children; Sonnet (as Literary Form); Childhood
First Line: A boy seems idle while at childish play
Last Line: If men are prone to lose the boyhood call.
Subject(s): Aging; Children; Sonnet (as Literary Form); Childhood
A boy seems idle while at childish play,
To men who make the "wheels of progress" turn.
But hearts of men in sacred moments yearn
For blocks and cans and strings, and messy clay;
And creeks, and frogs, and smudgy stacks of hay.
The childhood griefs and joys that live to burn
Within the older man, sedate and stern,
Are much the same as whims of boys today.
A man may well lament his age if he
Should grow composed and hard, forgetting all
The sleds, and stilts, and marble games. To be
A boy at heart is life! -- To tread the hall
Of "progress" is the starkest tragedy,
If men are prone to lose the boyhood call.
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