Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WRITTEN ON SEEING HER TWO SONS AT PLAY, by HENRIETTA O'NEILL First Line: Sweet age of blest illusion! Blooming boys Last Line: Where grief is sure, but happiness deceit! Alternate Author Name(s): Boyle, Henrietta Subject(s): Play; Sons | ||||||||
SWEET age of blest illusion! blooming boys, Ah! revel long in childhood's thoughtless joys, With light and pliant spirits, that can stoop To follow, sportively, the rolling hoop; To watch the sleeping top with gay delight, Or mark, with raptured gaze, the sailing kite; Or, eagerly pursuing Pleasure's call, Can find it centred in the bounding ball! Alas! the day will come, when sports like these Must lose their magic, and their power to please; Too swiftly fled, the rosy hours of youth Shall yield their fairy-charms to mournful Truth; Even now, a mother's fond prophetic fear Sees the dark train of human ills appear; Views various fortune for each lovely child, Storms for the bold, and anguish for the mild; Beholds already those expressive eyes Beam a sad certainty of future sighs; And dreads each suffering those dear breasts may know In their long passage through a world of woe: Perchance predestined every pang to prove, That treacherous friends inflict, or faithless love; For, ah! how few have found existence sweet, Where grief is sure, but happiness deceit! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LATEST INJURY by SHARON OLDS PRAYER DURING A TIME MY SON IS HAVING SEIZURES by SHARON OLDS TWO SONGS OF PEACE: 1 by YEHUDA AMICHAI THE SMALLISH SON by HAYDEN CARRUTH SARAH'S PROMISE by LUCILLE CLIFTON ANY MAN'S ADVICE TO HIS SON by KENNETH FEARING THE RIGHTFUL ONE by DAVID IGNATOW |
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