Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume I. Of Home: of Friendship. 1904. | | | | Poems of Home: I. About Children | | The Child in the Garden | | Henry van Dyke (1852–1933) |
| | From The Atlantic Magazine
WHEN to the garden of untroubled thought | |
| I came of late, and saw the open door, | |
| And wished again to enter, and explore | |
| The sweet, wild ways with stainless bloom inwrought, | |
| And bowers of innocence with beauty fraught, | 5 |
| It seemed some purer voice must speak before | |
| I dared to tread that garden loved of yore, | |
| That Eden lost unknown and found unsought. | |
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| Then just within the gate I saw a child,— | |
| A stranger-child, yet to my heart most dear,— | 10 |
| Who held his hands to me, and softly smiled | |
| With eyes that knew no shade of sin or fear: | |
| “Come in,” he said, “and play awhile with me; | |
| I am the little child you used to be.” | | | | |
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