Elizabeth Madox Roberts. A Child Asleep. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

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

A Child Asleep

By Elizabeth Madox Roberts


From “Under the Tree” AND I looked for him everywhere
Because I wanted him to play;
And then I found him on his bed
Asleep, but it was day.

His eyes were shut behind the lids—	5
He couldn’t lift them up to see.
And I looked at him very long,
And something in him looked at me.

And he was something like a cat
That is asleep, and like a dog;	10
Or like a thing that’s in the woods
All day behind a log.

And then I was afraid of it,
Of something that was sleeping there.
I didn’t even say his name,	15
But I came down the stair.