In Cornwall and Across the Sea With Poems Written in Devonshire. By Douglas B. W. Sladen |
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INFANCY. |
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 | In Cornwall and Across the Sea |  |
272
INFANCY.
When we recall the myriad accidentsWhich babe-life threaten, marvel is it great
That they have ever come to man's estate,
Who won great wars or carved out continents!
Napoleon, for all his regiments,
Was once a little helpless child, whose fate
Lay balanced in his nurse's love and hate:
A chill at Cromwell's birth had changed events,
As Rupert could not, and his cavaliers,
In half-a-dozen battles. When we think
How surfeit or starvation, heat or cold,
Neglect, unwary diet—not for years
But hours—will sweep the infant o'er the brink,
The marvel is that any man grows old.
| In Cornwall and Across the Sea | |