IX

As a poor man hungering stands with insatiate eyes and hands Void of bread Right in sight of men that feast while his famine with no least Crumb is fed,

Here across the garden-wall can I hear strange children call, Watch them play, From the windowed seat above, whence the goodlier child I love Is away.

Here the sights we saw together moved his fancy like a feather To and fro, Now to wonder, and thereafter to the sunny storm of laughter Loud and low —

Sights engraven on storied pages where man's tale of seven swift ages All was told — Seen of eyes yet bright from heaven — for the lips that laughed were seven Sweet years old.