Childhood, sweet and sunny childhood, <br />With its careless, thoughtless air, <br />Like the verdant, tangled wildwood, <br />Wants the training hand of care. <br /> <br />See it springing all around us - <br />Glad to know, and quick to learn; <br />Asking questions that confound us; <br />Teaching lessons in its turn. <br /> <br />Who loves not its joyous revel, <br />Leaping lightly on the lawn, <br />Up the knoll, along the level, <br />Free and graceful as a fawn <br /> <br />Let it revel; it is nature <br />Giving to the little dears <br />Strength of limb, and healthful features, <br />For the toil of coming years. <br /> <br />He who checks a child with terror, <br />Stops its play, and stills its song, <br />Not alone commits an error, <br />But a great and moral wrong. <br /> <br />Give it play, and never fear it - <br />Active life is no defect; <br />Never, never break its spirit - <br />Curb it only to direct. <br /> <br />Would you dam the flowing river, <br />Thinking it would cease to flow <br />Onward it must go forever - <br />Better teach it where to go. <br /> <br />Childhood is a fountain welling, <br />Trace its channel in the sand, <br />And its currents, spreading, swelling, <br />Will revive the withered land. <br /> <br />Childhood is the vernal season; <br />Trim and train the tender shoot; <br />Love is to the coming reason, <br />As the blossom to the fruit. <br /> <br />Tender twigs are bent and folded - <br />Art to nature beauty lends; <br />Childhood easily is moulded; <br />Manhood breaks, but seldom bends.<br /><br />lil island Gal<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/childhood-35/
