Poems (Sharpless)/"Enfants Perdu"
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"ENFANTS PERDU"
Where are they wandering over the world,
Society's outcasts, detested and feared?
Nature's lost children, whom ye may know,
Some by the brow so defiantly reared,
Some by their scornful and gay flaunting mien,
Some by a dogged indifference to sin.
Society's outcasts, detested and feared?
Nature's lost children, whom ye may know,
Some by the brow so defiantly reared,
Some by their scornful and gay flaunting mien,
Some by a dogged indifference to sin.
Lost children! kind Nature, thy children? ah no!
With pity instinctive thy grand heart still throbs,
Thou givest them all in thy power—a grave—
And over them sadly thy winter wind sobs.
Thy bounty is poured for them fully and free;
For lives that are ruined they cannot curse thee.
With pity instinctive thy grand heart still throbs,
Thou givest them all in thy power—a grave—
And over them sadly thy winter wind sobs.
Thy bounty is poured for them fully and free;
For lives that are ruined they cannot curse thee.
For them, as for us who stand unsmirched and proud,
Thy clear stars and blue sky and the warm kissing sun,
Thy winds thro' the pines, thy sweet wildwood blooms,
Thy streamlets that murmur 'neath trees as they run.
For them, as for us, all thy beauty, thy joy.
Thou Blesser of all! ah, thou couldst not destroy.
Thy clear stars and blue sky and the warm kissing sun,
Thy winds thro' the pines, thy sweet wildwood blooms,
Thy streamlets that murmur 'neath trees as they run.
For them, as for us, all thy beauty, thy joy.
Thou Blesser of all! ah, thou couldst not destroy.