COME BACK!
When we were not magnificent, nor heavenly, nor wise,
And all our thoughts were clean and round, astonished as our eyes,
Our life slid on untroubledly, as shiny-smooth as silk,
And sugar-loaves from Paradise enriched our bread and milk.
But one day, in a closet where the grown-ups put some things,
We found their elephantine clothes, and laid aside our wings.
You gloved your arms with Common-Sense, and corseted in Pride,
With starchy skirts of Knowledge stuck out yards on every side!
I laid aside Companionship for crimson Cloth-of-Pose,
And stuck a blind man’s spectacles upon my foolish nose,
And found a little whisky-flask of Irony or two—
And we played up to each other as we’d seen our elders do!
We were Prince and sapphire Princess—though the jewels hurt your throat;
We were haughtier than Pharaohs—and I sweltered in my coat;
So we dared not shirk the ending, for our very ruffles’ sake!
—Though a bad dream’s ice to choke you if your clothes won’t let you wake!
So, the Tragic Crown weighs heavy on that summer-shining head,
And—the scarlet of my doublet drips the wet where I have bled—
And the grown-up phrases jangle, and their harps make angry noise—
Helen of the angers, let us put aside these toys!
Put away your wisdom, and I will feed the vines
The little drinks that eat me, and the sunset-colored wines!
Come beneath the apple-bloom, beside the pinky pools,
With awful maledictions on the two who were such fools!
Run, and be as darting as the sunlight through a tree!
Sit, and sing a silly song of apricots with me!
Innocence, oh Innocence, with whiteness on your names,
Come into the crooked wood and help a child play games!