A small boy begs his father to slow down and speak to him, terrified of being left behind. The first stanza is the boy’s voice — urgent, pleading, repeating “father” as if trying to hold on. But in the next stanza, the father has vanished. Night surrounds the child, who stands soaking with dew, stuck in deep mud, crying. The only movement is a wisp of vapour lifting away — perhaps his last hope or the departing spirit of safety. The mood is one of utter abandonment. The child’s fear shifts from anxious pleading to silent, helpless weeping, and the image of the vanishing vapour leaves us with an eerie afterimage of something lost forever. There’s no comfort here, only a cold, damp emptiness.
The Little Boy Lost — Summary
"Father, father, where are you going? Oh do not walk so fast! Speak, father, speak to your little boy, Or else I shall be lost."
The night was dark, no father was there, The child was wet with dew; The mire was deep, and the child did weep, And away the vapour flew.