Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE FIRST BIRTHDAY, by DAVID HARTLEY COLERIDGE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The sun, sweet girl, hath run his year-long race Last Line: Its father's frown, its nurse's mimic rage. Alternate Author Name(s): Coleridge, Hartley Subject(s): Babies; Birthdays; Infants | ||||||||
The sun, sweet girl, hath run his year-long race Through the vast nothing of the eternal sky -- Since the glad hearing of the first faint cry Announced a stranger from the unknown place Of unborn souls. How blank was then the face, How uninformed the weak light-shunning eye, That wept and saw not. Poor mortality Begins to mourn before it knows its case, Prophetic in its ignorance. But soon The hospitalities of earth engage The banished spirit in its new exile -- Pass some few changes of the fickle moon, The merry babe has learned its mother's smile, Its father's frown, its nurse's mimic rage. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A POET TO HIS BABY SON by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON BABYHOOD by ELIZABETH AKERS ALLEN INFANCY by EDMUND JOHN ARMSTRONG BALLAD OF THE LAYETTE by WAYNE KOESTENBAUM A TOAST FOR LITTLE IRON MIKE by PAUL MARIANI THE PAMPERING OF LEORA by THYLIAS MOSS ONE FOR ALL NEWBORNS by THYLIAS MOSS IN THE THRIVING SEASON by LISEL MUELLER ON WORDSWORTH by DAVID HARTLEY COLERIDGE |
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