Childhood's Hours

Childhood's Hours written by William Henry Davies

Nature Poems (1908)

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My heart's a coffin cold,
In which my Childhood lies
Unburied yet; and will -
Until this body dies.

I think me every hour
Of those sweet, far-off days
That draw so very close,
And show their pretty ways.

Where'er I am they come,
Those ghosts, my Childhood Hours;
They run up to my knees,
Laughing and waving flowers.

They run up to my knees,
They shout and cry Cuckoo!
They mock the bleating lambs,
And like young calves they moo.

Some of their flowers are weeds,
Are weeds, and nothing more;
But sweeter far they smell
Than roses at my door.

It is a merry crew,
And I curse Time that he
Has made me what I am -
A man and mystery.

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.