When Childhood Died

I can recall the day When childhood died. I had grown thin and tall And eager-eyed.

Such a false happiness Had seized me then; A child, I saw myself Man among men.

Now I see that I was Ignorant, surprised, As one for the surgeon's knife Anæsthetized.

So that I did not know What loomed before, Nor how, a child, I became A child no more.

The world's sharpened knife Cut round my heart; Then something was taken And flung apart.

I did not, could not know What had been done. Under some evil drag I lived as one

At home in the seeming world; Then slowly came Through years and years to myself And was no more the same.

I know now an ill thing was done To a young child By the world's wary knife Maimed and defiled.

I can recall the day Almost without anger or pain, When childhood did not die But was slain.