The Children

A moment since, I paced almost aloneThis wonderful wide way, of all her streetsThe one wherein the pulse of Paris beatsMost gaily. Like some sweep of beachway, blownEmpty by west-born winds, the tapering lineOf path and drive swelled up the rising groundToward the Arch, deserted, and I foundThe most majestic mile in Europe mine!

Was it some word I did not comprehend,Some sign too subtle for my grosser sense,That in an instant brought, I know not whence,This throng that fills the path from end to end?Or was it that the wizard April sunBent and tapped lightly at the myriad doorsWherefrom this tide of laughter daily pours?I know but this:—a miracle was done!

The children! All the world’s a garden grown,Thrilled with a rush of inter-rippling wordsThan all the liquid babble of the birdsSupremely sweeter; and my steps are strownWith faces made of roses, and my handKept busy with the venturesome who strayOut of their course, and pause upon the wayTo bend above some treasure in the sand.

An instant gone, it was a little faceFramed in white satin, and two violetsThat looked me through, and fathomed the regretsOf my whole lifetime in a second’s space!And now see where he stands, that elder one,Poised straight and slender, with the languid SouthSnared in his eyes and in his proud young mouth:—Ah, God, ah, God, why hast Thou hid the sun?

I thought them long since dead, these dreams, and yetBehold, they stand before me in the way,Amid the throng of little ones at play,Gowned in their ashen robes of vain regret!Ah, first love of my young, believing heart,Haven of my hopes, white light across my fears,How strange it is to think the empty yearsMight of this heaven have granted us a part!

How slow upon the air the music dies!How blind am I, how loath to understand!The wraiths of dreams denied brush by me, andI find my unborn bairns in strangers’ eyes!Exiled, I watch them, romping as they run,Heartsick for this that now can never be:—One that should at my coming run to me!Ah, God, ah, God, why hast Thou hid the sun?