Read "Revenants Des Enfants" by Frederic Manning online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Softly, on little feet that make no sound, / With laughter that one does not hear, they tread / Upon the primroses that star the ground, / Latticed by shade from branches overhead, / Swaying in moonlight; but their footsteps make / A twinkling like the raindrops on the lake.
The shy things that love silence and the night / Are fearless at their coming; as they pass, / Neither the nightingale nor owl take flight, / So gentle is each footfall on the grass; / They are a part of silence, and a part / Of sweetness sprung from tears hid in the heart.
Their faces we may not caress, nor hear / The little bodies that are soft as dreams; / Their life is rounded by another sphere, / They are as frail as shadows seen in streams: / A ripple might efface them, but they keep / Shadows of their existence in our sleep.