The Idiot and the Child

The Idiot and the Child written by William Henry Davies

From "Farewell to Poesy", 1910

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There was a house where an old dame
  Lived with a son, his child and wife;
And with a son of fifty years,
  An idiot all his life.

When others wept this idiot laughed,
  When others laughed he then would weep:
The married pair took oath his eyes
  Did never close in sleep.

Death came that way, and which, think you,
  Fell under that old tyrant's spell?
He breathed upon that little child,
  Who loved her life so well.

This made the idiot chuckle hard:
  The old dame looked at that child dead
And him she loved - 'Ah, well; thank God
  It is no worse!' she said.

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