Child, Child — Summary

Sara Teasdale’s “Child, Child” reads like urgent, tender advice whispered to someone young—or perhaps to the childlike part of the self. The speaker urges loving fully now, while there is time, and not holding back for fear of pain. Even a broken heart is not final: “Out of the wound new joy will start.” The tone is both passionate and reassuring, insisting that love is worth any risk because it is the only thing that makes life feel real. The poem pairs sensual, earthly love—“the voice and the eyes and the soul of a man”—with religious language of sin and heaven, suggesting love is a saving, sacred force. The repeated “Child, child” creates a lulling, almost songlike intimacy, but there is also a quiet urgency underneath, since “life is short as a happy day.” The overall mood is warm, earnest, and slightly melancholy.