Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By Robert Bridges (1844–1930)When I see childhood on the threshold seize
| WHEN I see childhood on the threshold seize | |
| The prize of life from age and likelihood, | |
| I mourn time’s change that will not be withstood, | |
| Thinking how Christ said, Be like one of these. | |
| For in the forest among many trees | 5 |
| Scarce one in all is found that hath made good | |
| The virgin pattern of its slender wood, | |
| That courtesied in joy to every breeze; | |
| But scathed, but knotted trunks that raise on high | |
| Their arms in stiff contortion, strained and bare: | 10 |
| Whose crowns in patriarchal sorrow sigh. | |
| So little children ye—nay, nay, ye ne’er | |
| From me shall learn how sure the change and nigh, | |
| When ye shall share our strength and mourn to share. | |