Jack Cornstalk in His Teens
Jack Cornstalk in His Teens - meaning Summary
An Enduring Boyish Archetype
The poem presents the "freckle-faced boy" as a persistent, mischievous archetype who survives history’s cycles. Through playful images and broad temporal leaps, the speaker shows boyish energy recurring across ages and places, suggesting that youthful irreverence endures beyond wars and disasters. The figure is both affectionate and universal, a comforting, mischievous presence who will remain to counsel humanity even at the end of time.
Read Complete AnalysesIf not in the Garden, he had in the ark, To neither the beasts’ nor the passengers’ joy. Full many a boyish and monkeyish lark, The sandy-complexioned, the freckle-faced boy. And down through the ages he rattles the drums, While armies and nations each other destroy; The century goes, and the century comes But he lives on forever, the freckle-faced boy. All over the world are the lands of his birth; And when Time and Transgression this planet destroy He will come to advise the last man on earth The fatherly, chummy, the freckle-faced boy.
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