| Twenty-one Distichs about Children |
| Thou,
whose exterior semblance doth belie
Thy soul's immensity. —WORDSWORTH |
| 1. Bernice thinks
a little.
Bernice is two months
old; the world is new for her.
A child has clenched
his fist; there's anger in his eye;
Janet was near when Grandma Jane talked sharp to Mother Kate. Children want their
mothers to
When mothers cry and
make a fuss,
When husbands do not
like their wives,
A child may have a
dirty face,
Wise Mary sees her
children's friends
When children see their
parents quarrel,
A child has come—we
know not whence
Reality, so busy—look, has made
On an infant's little finger,
The years may go, and parents may
be far
He was a man of means; his name was
Alexander;
When children dash and children romp,
All parents have a fine responsibility:
A boy has often clenched his fist,
As much as little Alice was unknown,
Oh, what an ethical mishap!
See Hamlet, and Miranda, too,
A child will like it, when his parents
chide
|
From Hot Afternoons Have Been in Montana: Poems (Definition Press)
© 1957 by Eli Siegel

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