Love-Songs of Childhood

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0032" id="link2H_4_0032"></SPAN></p> <h2> WHEN I WAS A BOY </h2> <p>Up in the attic where I slept<br/> When I was a boy, a little boy,<br/> In through the lattice the moonlight crept,<br/> Bringing a tide of dreams that swept<br/> Over the low, red trundle-bed,<br/> Bathing the tangled curly head,<br/> While moonbeams played at hide-and-seek<br/> With the dimples on the sun-browned cheek&mdash;<br/> When I was a boy, a little boy!<br/> And, oh! the dreams&mdash;the dreams I dreamed!<br/> When I was a boy, a little boy!<br/> For the grace that through the lattice streamed<br/> Over my folded eyelids seemed<br/> To have the gift of prophecy,<br/> And to bring me glimpses of times to be<br/> When manhood's clarion seemed to call&mdash;<br/> Ah! that was the sweetest dream of all,<br/> When I was a boy, a little boy!<br/> I'd like to sleep where I used to sleep<br/> When I was a boy, a little boy!<br/> For in at the lattice the moon would peep,<br/> Bringing her tide of dreams to sweep<br/> The crosses and griefs of the years away<br/> From the heart that is weary and faint to-day;<br/> And those dreams should give me back again<br/> A peace I have never known since then&mdash;<br/> When I was a boy, a little boy!<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />