English poetry

PoetsBiographiesPoems by ThemesRandom Poem
The Rating of PoetsThe Rating of Poems

Poem by Francis Thompson


To a Child


Whenas my life shall time with funeral tread
The heavy death-drum of the beaten hours,
Following, sole mourner, mine own manhood dead,
Poor forgot corse, where not a maid strows flowers;
When I you love am no more I you love,
But go with unsubservient feet, behold
Your dear face through changed eyes, all grim change prove;--
A new man, mock-ed with misname of old;
When shamed Love keep his ruined lodging, elf!
When, ceremented in mouldering memory,
Myself is hears-ed underneath myself,
And I am but the monument of me:-
O to that tomb be tender then, which bears
Only the name of him it sepulchres! 



Francis Thompson


Francis Thompson's other poems:
  1. Dedication to Wilfred and Alice Meynell
  2. Unto This Last
  3. Orient Ode
  4. After Her Going
  5. Epilogue to the Poet's Sitter


Poems of the other poets with the same name:

  • Henry Longfellow To a Child ("Dear child! how radiant on thy mother's knee")
  • Louise Guiney To a Child ("Dear Owain, when you are minded")
  • Edmund Gosse To a Child ("Thou hast the colors of the spring")

    Poem to print Print

    1805 Views



    Last Poems


    To Russian version



  • English Poetry. E-mail eng-poetry.ru@yandex.ru