Get back! Give me air! Give me freedom and room,
The warm earth and bright water, the crowding sweet bloom
Of the flowers, and the measureless, marvellous sky,—
All of these all the time, and a shelter close by
Where silence and beauty and peace are my own
In a chamber alone.
Then bring me the others! “A child” is a crime;
It is “children” who grow through the beautiful time
Of their childhood up into the age you are in.
“A child” must needs suffer and sicken and sin;