University of Virginia Library


21

CHILDISHNESS.

A fairy form is frolicking
In beauty round me now,
With cheek of sunbright loveliness
And fair and beaming brow.
He sporteth now around my feet,
In gambols free and wild—
A thing of youth and gentleness,
A gladsome, winsome, child!
He spyeth now a butterfly,
And boundeth o'er the green—
The daisies and the buttercups
He heedeth not, I ween—
His little hands he clappeth,
By the winged sprite beguiled,
And laugheth in his gladsomeness,
The happy, thoughtless child.
Duganne.