Arthur Davison Ficke. To a Child Twenty Years Hence. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

To a Child Twenty Years Hence

By Arthur Davison Ficke


YOU shall remember dimly,
Through mists of far-away,
Her whom, our lips set grimly,
We carried forth today.

But when, in days hereafter,	5
Unfolding time shall bring
Knowledge of love and laughter
And trust and triumphing,—

Then from some face the fairest,
From some most joyous breast,	10
Garner what there is rarest
And happiest and best,—

The youth, the light the rapture
Of eager April grace,—
And in that sweetness, capture	15
Your mother’s far-off face.

And all the mists shall perish
That have between you moved.
You shall see her you cherish;
And love, as we have loved.	20