Explore "Intimations of Mortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" by Alice Meynell on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A simple child.
That lightly draws its breath
And feels its life in every limb,
What should it know of death?
WORDSWORTH.
It knows but will not tell.
Awake, alone, it counts its father's years -- / How few are left -- its mother's. Ah, how well / It knows of death, in tears.
If any of the three -- / Parents and child -- believe they have prevailed / To keep the secret of mortality, / I know that two have failed.
The third, the lonely, keeps / One secret -- a child's knowledge. When they come / At night to ask wherefore the sweet one weeps, / Those hidden lips are dumb.