O my child-love, my love of long ago,
How great was life when you and I were young!
The world was boundless for we did not know;
And life a poem for we had not sung.
Now is the world grown small, and we thereon
Fill with wise toil and woe each flying day;
Elves from the wood, dreams from my heart are gone,
And heaven is bare, for God is far away.
O my child-love, cannot you come again,
And I look on you with grave innocent eyes?
Your God has many angels; I would fain
Woo for one hour one angel from the skies.
O my child-love, come back, come back to me,
And laughing lead me from the care and din;
Lay on my heart those small hands tenderly
And lovingly to let the whole world in.
