Comparisons

    Child, when they say that others     Have been or are like you,     Babes fit to be your brothers,     Sweet human drops of dew,     Bright fruit of mortal mothers,     What should one say or do?     We know the thought is treason,     We feel the dream absurd;     A claim rebuked of reason,     That withers at a word:     For never shone the season     That bore so blithe a bird.     Some smiles may seem as merry,     Some glances gleam as wise,     From lips as like a cherry     And scarce less gracious eyes;     Eyes browner than a berry,     Lips red as mornings rise.     But never yet rang laughter     So sweet in gladdened ears     Through wall and floor and rafter     As all this household hears     And rings response thereafter     Till cloudiest weather clears.     When those your chosen of all men,     Whose honey never cloys,     Two lights whose smiles enthrall men,     Were called at your age boys,     Those mighty men, while small men,     Could make no merrier noise.     Our Shakespeare, surely, daffed not     More lightly pain aside     From radiant lips that quaffed not     Of forethoughts tragic tide:     Our Dickens, doubtless, laughed not     More loud with lifes first pride.     The dawn were not more cheerless     With neither light nor dew     Than we without the fearless     Clear laugh that thrills us through:     If ever child stood peerless,     Love knows that child is you