CHILD, when they say that others <br /> Have been or are like you, <br />Babes fit to be your brothers, <br /> Sweet human drops of dew, <br />Bright fruit of mortal mothers, <br /> What should one say or do? <br /> <br />We know the thought is treason, <br /> We feel the dream absurd; <br />A claim rebuked of reason, <br /> That withers at a word: <br />For never shone the season <br /> That bore so blithe a bird. <br /> <br />Some smiles may seem as merry, <br /> Some glances gleam as wise, <br />From lips as like a cherry <br /> And scarce less gracious eyes; <br />Eyes browner than a berry, <br /> Lips red as morning's rise. <br /> <br />But never yet rang laughter <br /> So sweet in gladdened ears <br />Through wall and floor and rafter <br /> As all this household hears <br />And rings response thereafter <br /> Till cloudiest weather clears. <br /> <br />When those your chosen of all men, <br /> Whose honey never cloys, <br />Two lights whose smiles enthrall men, <br /> Were called at your age boys, <br />Those mighty men, while small men, <br /> Could make no merrier noise. <br /> <br />Our Shakespeare, surely, daffed not <br /> More lightly pain aside <br />From radiant lips that quaffed not <br /> Of forethought's tragic tide: <br />Our Dickens, doubtless, laughed not <br /> More loud with life's first pride. <br /> <br />The dawn were not more cheerless <br /> With neither light nor dew <br />Than we without the fearless <br /> Clear laugh that thrills us through: <br />If ever child stood peerless, <br /> Love knows that child is you.<br /><br />Algernon Charles Swinburne<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/comparisons/
