Theme · 90 poems
Poems About Childhood
The house remembered, the swing, the long summers: poems looking back at the country we all emigrated from.
LengthForm
Mother and Babe
Walt Whitman
I SEE the sleeping babe, nestling the breast of its mother;The sleeping mother and babe—hush’d, I study them long and long.
2 lines · lyric
Bliss is the plaything of the child
Emily Dickinson
Bliss is the plaything of the child —The secret of the manThe sacred stealth of Boy and Girl
4 lines · lyric
Upon a Child
Robert Herrick
Here a pretty baby liesSung asleep with lullabies;Pray be silent, and not stir
4 lines · lyric
What General has a Good Army
Walt Whitman
WHAT General has a good army in himself, has a good army;He happy in himself, or she happy in herself, is happy,But I tell you you cannot be happy by others, any more than you can beget or conceive a
5 lines · lyric
I noticed People disappeared
Emily Dickinson
I noticed People disappearedWhen but a little child —Supposed they visited remote
6 lines · lyric
She slept beneath a tree
Emily Dickinson
She slept beneath a tree —Remembered but by me.I touched her Cradle mute —
6 lines · lyric
An Epitaph Upon a Child
Robert Herrick
Virgins promised when I died,That they would each primrose-tideDuly, morn and evening, come,
6 lines · lyric
Another Grace For A Child
Robert Herrick
Here a little child I standHeaving up my either hand;Cold as paddocks though they be,
6 lines · lyric
Upon a Child That Died
Robert Herrick
Here she lies, a pretty bud,Lately made of flesh and blood;Who as soon fell fast asleep,
6 lines · lyric
Cancelled Stanza
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Gather, O gather,Foeman and friend in love and peace!Waves sleep together
7 lines · lyric
Doorframe
The QuillOak Editors
You marked my height in pencilon the doorframe every spring,and I stretched up on tiptoe,
8 lines · lyric
As Children bid the Guest "Good Night"
Emily Dickinson
As Children bid the Guest "Good Night"And then reluctant turn —My flowers raise their pretty lips —
8 lines · lyric
Away from Home are some and I
Emily Dickinson
Away from Home are some and I —An Emigrant to beIn a Metropolis of Homes
8 lines · lyric
How happy I was if I could forget
Emily Dickinson
How happy I was if I could forgetTo remember how sad I amWould be an easy adversity
8 lines · lyric
The Mountain sat upon the Plain
Emily Dickinson
The Mountain sat upon the PlainIn his tremendous Chair —His observation omnifold,
8 lines · lyric
To Music, to Becalm a Sweet Sick Youth
Robert Herrick
Charms, that call down the moon from out her sphere,On this sick youth work your enchantments here!Bind up his senses with your numbers, so
8 lines · lyric
To the Lady Crewe, Upon the Death of Her Child
Robert Herrick
Why, Madam, will ye longer weep,Whenas your baby's lull'd asleep?And, pretty child, feels now no more
8 lines · lyric
Home, My Little Children, Hear Are Songs For You
Robert Louis Stevenson
COME, my little children, here are songs for you;Some are short and some are long, and all, all are new.You must learn to sing them very small and clear,
8 lines · lyric
The Little Boy Found
William Blake
The little boy lost in the lonely fen, Led by the wandering light,Began to cry, but God, ever nigh,
8 lines · lyric
The Little Boy Lost
William Blake
"Father, father, where are you going? Oh do not walk so fast!Speak, father, speak to your little boy,
8 lines · lyric
The Voice of the Ancient Bard
William Blake
Youth of delight! come hitherAnd see the opening morn,Image of Truth new-born.
11 lines · lyric
Song of Proserpine While Gathering Flowers on the Plain of Enna
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sacred Goddess, Mother Earth,Thou from whose immortal bosomGods, and men, and beasts have birth,
12 lines · lyric
The Apron of Flowers
Robert Herrick
To gather flowers, Sappha went,And homeward she did bringWithin her lawny continent,
12 lines · lyric
The Moon
Robert Louis Stevenson
The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;She shines on thieves on the garden wall,On streets and fields and harbour quays,
12 lines · lyric
The Blossom
William Blake
Merry, merry sparrow!Under leaves so greenA happy blossom
12 lines · lyric
A Wife—at daybreak I shall be
Emily Dickinson
A Wife — at daybreak I shall be —Sunrise — Hast thou a Flag for me?At Midnight, I am but a Maid,
13 lines · lyric
Pan, Echo, and the Satyr
Percy Bysshe Shelley
FROM THE GREEK OF MOSCHUS.Pan loved his neighbour Echo — but that childOf Earth and Air pined for the Satyr leaping;
13 lines · lyric
O Beauty, Passing Beauty!
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
O beauty, passing beauty! Sweetest sweet!How can thou let me waste my youth in sighs?I only ask to sit beside thy feet.
14 lines · lyric
Nature
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,Leads by the hand her little child to bed,Half willing, half reluctant to be led,
14 lines · lyric
To Ianthe
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I love thee, Baby! for thine own sweet sake;Those azure eyes, that faintly dimpled cheek,Thy tender frame, so eloquently weak,
14 lines · lyric
To Wordsworth
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to knowThat things depart which never may return:Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow,
14 lines · lyric
Sonnet 11: As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st
William Shakespeare
As fast as thou shalt wane, so fast thou grow'st,In one of thine, from that which thou departest;And that fresh blood which youngly thou bestow'st,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 115: Those lines that I before have writ do lie
William Shakespeare
Those lines that I before have writ do lie,Even those that said I could not love you dearer:Yet then my judgment knew no reason why
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 124: If my dear love were but the child of state
William Shakespeare
If my dear love were but the child of state,It might for Fortune's bastard be unfather'd,As subject to Time's love or to Time's hate,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 143: Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catch
William Shakespeare
Lo, as a careful housewife runs to catchOne of her feather'd creatures broke away,Sets down her babe, and makes all swift dispatch
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 15: When I consider every thing that grows
William Shakespeare
When I consider every thing that growsHolds in perfection but a little moment,That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 17: Who will believe my verse in time to come
William Shakespeare
Who will believe my verse in time to come,If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 2: When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
William Shakespeare
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field,Thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 22: My glass shall not persuade me I am old
William Shakespeare
My glass shall not persuade me I am old,So long as youth and thou are of one date;But when in thee time's furrows I behold,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 37: As a decrepit father takes delight
William Shakespeare
As a decrepit father takes delightTo see his active child do deeds of youth,So I, made lame by Fortune's dearest spite,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 41: Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits
William Shakespeare
Those pretty wrongs that liberty commits,When I am sometime absent from thy heart,Thy beauty, and thy years full well befits,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 59: If there be nothing new, but that which is
William Shakespeare
If there be nothing new, but that which isHath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,Which labouring for invention bear amiss
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 7: Lo! in the orient when the gracious light
William Shakespeare
Lo! in the orient when the gracious lightLifts up his burning head, each under eyeDoth homage to his new-appearing sight,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 77: Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear
William Shakespeare
Thy glass will show thee how thy beauties wear,Thy dial how thy precious minutes waste;These vacant leaves thy mind's imprint will bear,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 8: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
William Shakespeare
Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 96: Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness
William Shakespeare
Some say thy fault is youth, some wantonness;Some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport;Both grace and faults are lov'd of more and less:
14 lines · sonnet
From the Original Draft of the Poem to William Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
The world is now our dwelling-place;Where'er the earth one fading traceOf what was great and free does keep,
15 lines · lyric
Cradle Song
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
What does little birdie sayIn her nest at peep of day?Let me fly, says little birdie,
16 lines · lyric
A loss of something ever felt I
Emily Dickinson
A loss of something ever felt I —The first that I could recollectBereft I was — of what I knew not
16 lines · lyric
It would have starved a Gnat
Emily Dickinson
It would have starved a Gnat —To live so small as I —And yet I was a living Child —
16 lines · lyric
'Tis One by One—the Father counts
Emily Dickinson
'Tis One by One — the Father counts —And then a Tract betweenSet Cypherless — to teach the Eye
16 lines · lyric
Life's Tragedy
Paul Laurence Dunbar
It may be misery not to sing at all,And to go silent through the brimming day;It may be misery never to be loved,
16 lines · lyric
Song. Translated From the German
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Ah! grasp the dire dagger and couch the fell spear,If vengeance and death to thy bosom be dear,The dastard shall perish, death's torment shall prove,
16 lines · lyric
Farewell to the Farm
Robert Louis Stevenson
The coach is at the door at last;The eager children, mounting fastAnd kissing hands, in chorus sing:
16 lines · lyric
God Gave To Me A Child In Part
Robert Louis Stevenson
GOD gave to me a child in part,Yet wholly gave the father's heart:Child of my soul, O whither now,
16 lines · lyric
Nurse's Song
William Blake
When the voices of children are heard on the green, And laughing is heard on the hill,My heart is at rest within my breast,
16 lines · lyric
The Little Vagabond
William Blake
Dear mother, dear mother, the Church is cold;But the Alehouse is healthy, and pleasant, and warm.Besides, I can tell where I am used well;
16 lines · lyric
To His Saviour, a Child;a Present, by a Child
Robert Herrick
Go, pretty child, and bear this flowerUnto thy little Saviour;And tell him, by that bud now blown,
18 lines · lyric
Homer's Hymn to Minerva
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I sing the glorious Power with azure eyes,Athenian Pallas! tameless, chaste, and wise,Tritogenia, town-preserving Maid,
20 lines · lyric
Foreign Children
Robert Louis Stevenson
Little Indian, Sioux, or Crow,Little frosty Eskimo,Little Turk or Japanee,
20 lines · lyric