An Early Start by Sarah Noble Ives
A child rises before dawn, waking to the sound of birds, and slips outside alone while the world still lies under gray and silver mist. Running barefoot through dew-wet meadows thick with clover and drowsy bees, she witnesses the Sun himself waking from sleep in the grass, his rosy light peering over a mound before rising warm and round to smile down on her in her little slumber-gown. The meadow greets her with laughing, speaking blossoms, dewdrops strung like pearls on spider webs, and small rainbows dancing in the golden air. Bees, yellow butterflies, and wise brown beetles buzz and fly about while busy ants scurry in and out, and unseen songs drift from birds too high in the deep-blue sky to spot. She explains that she knows all these things because the daisies whispered them to her, low, telling her far more than she had ever known before. The poem closes with a broad white path, the Shining Way, stretching before her across the new day.
By Sarah Noble Ives · Genre: Children's Literature, Poetry, Pastoral Poetry · 386 words
First lines
The dark had not unwrapped the skies / When I awoke, and rubbed my eyes. / The world was full of chirping birds, / I heard their soft, half-sleepy words. / I tiptoed softly on the floor, / I slipped the bolt, stole thro' the door, / And lo! a wondrous world of gray / And silver mist before me lay.
The white dews wet my small bare feet, / As I ran thro' the meadows, sweet / With clover nodding all about, / And sleepy hum-bees creeping out.
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Genres
- Children's Literature — The poem features a child protagonist with explicit markers of youth (small bare feet, slumber-gown), employs simple accessible language, and explores themes of wonder and early morning discovery suited for young readers.
- Poetry — The entire work is composed in rhyming verse with consistent meter and poetic structures, utilizing personification, vivid imagery, and rhythmic patterns characteristic of formal verse.
- Pastoral Poetry — The work is dominated by rural pastoral imagery—meadows, clover, flowers, insects, and natural countryside scenes—celebrating the beauty and serenity of agrarian landscapes.
- Fantasy/Magical Realism — Extensive personification treats natural elements as sentient: the sun sleeps and smiles, blossoms laugh and speak, daisies whisper—animating the natural world with magical properties.
Tags
poem · children's literature · narrative poem · lyrical · childhood · wonder · innocence · nature · awakening · solitude · imagination · discovery
What this Textopian page supports
An Early Start is listed on Textopian as a poem by Sarah Noble Ives, dated Date unknown.
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- Work type: Poem
- Author: Sarah Noble Ives
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Children's Literature, Poetry, Pastoral Poetry, Fantasy/Magical Realism, Lyric Poetry
- Length: 386 words
- Structure: 1 section, 6 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
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