Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WRITTEN ON SEEING HER TWO SONS AT PLAY, by HENRIETTA O'NEILL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WRITTEN ON SEEING HER TWO SONS AT PLAY, by                    
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!





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