The world about me may hunger and strive.

I have heard that mystic meaning is hid,

I have heard that wonderful things are made,

Of the number seven—may God forbid—

For I cannot tell, and I feel afraid.

The sweetest poem that ever was writ—

Do you not know it?—is 'We are seven;'

For the dear little girl who talks in it,

Will not give up her brothers in Heaven.

What the stupid sense of the grown-up man