WHEN CHILDHOOD DIED

I can recall the day

When childhood died.

I had grown thin and tall

And eager-eyed.

Such a false happiness

Had seized me then;

A child, I saw myself

Man among men.

Now I see that I was

Ignorant, surprised,

As one for the surgeon's knife

Anæsthetized.

So that I did not know

What loomed before,

Nor how, a child, I became

A child no more.

The world's sharpened knife

Cut round my heart;

Then something was taken

And flung apart.

I did not, could not know

What had been done.

Under some evil drag

I lived as one

At home in the seeming world;

Then slowly came

Through years and years to myself

And was no more the same.

I know now an ill thing was done

To a young child

By the world's wary knife

Maimed and defiled.

I can recall the day

Almost without anger or pain,

When childhood did not die

But was slain.