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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A CHILD'S QUESTION, by EMMA HUNTINGTON NASON First Line: What is it to be dead?' o life Last Line: My soul this day hath tasted death! | |||
"WHAT is it to be dead?" O Life, Close-held within my own, What foul breath in the air is rife? What voice malign, unknown, Hath dared this whisper faint and dread, "What is -- what is it to be dead?" Who told you that the song-bird died? They had no right to say This to my child -- I know we cried When Robin "went away;" But this strange thing we never said, That what we loved so could be dead. Give me your hands, my only boy! Health throbs in every vein; Thou hast not dreamed of earth's alloy, Nor stepped where guilt has lain; O sweet young life! O baby breath! What hast thou now to do with death? I even framed for thy dear sake Anew the childish prayer, Lest, "If I die before I wake," Should rouse a thought or care. Mother of Christ, was this a sin -- To watch where death might enter in? Too late! The Angel of the Flame Relentless cries: "Go hence!" I think of Eden's sin and shame; I gaze -- on innocence! And still the curse? Must I arise And lead my own from Paradise! I see the wide, the awful world Loom up beyond the gate; I see his pure soul tossed and whirled -- My child! I pray thee wait! Ask me not what the Angel saith; My soul this day hath tasted death! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHAT I LIVE FOR by GEORGE LINNAEUS BANKS LINES TO WILLIAM LINLEY WHILE HE SANG A SONG TO PURCELL'S MUSIC by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE PATIENCE by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE BY THE STATUE OF KING CHARLES AT CHARING CROSS by LIONEL PIGOT JOHNSON ZION, OR THE CITY OF GOD by JOHN NEWTON OVERTONES by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY THE INDIGNANT CAPTAIN OF INDUSTRY by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS MUSIC OF HUNGARY by ANNE REEVE ALDRICH |
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