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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  511. A Child

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Mary Lamb. 1765–1847

511. A Child

A CHILD ‘s a plaything for an hour; 
  Its pretty tricks we try 
For that or for a longer space— 
  Then tire, and lay it by. 
 
But I knew one that to itself         5
  All seasons could control; 
That would have mock’d the sense of pain 
  Out of a grievèd soul. 
 
Thou straggler into loving arms, 
  Young climber-up of knees,  10
When I forget thy thousand ways 
  Then life and all shall cease.