Brown and Agile Child
Brown and Agile Child - meaning Summary
Sunlit Praise of Youthful Vitality
The poem addresses a "brown and agile" child using intense sun and nature imagery to celebrate bodily vitality, warmth, and luminous presence. The speaker admires the child’s movement, voice, and looks—comparing them to grain, waves, bees, poppies, and water—while admitting a personal distance: everything else pulls away from the speaker at noon. Overall it reads as an exaltation of youthful, elemental life seen through a longing, somber gaze.
Read Complete AnalysesBrown and agile child, the sun which forms the fruit And ripens the grain and twists the seaweed Has made your happy body and your luminous eyes And given your mouth the smile of water. A black and anguished sun is entangled in the twigs Of your black mane when you hold out your arms. You play in the sun as in a tidal river And it leaves two dark pools in your eyes. Brown and agile child, nothing draws me to you, Everything pulls away from me here in the noon. You are the delirious youth of bee, The drunkedness of the wave, the power of the heat. My somber heart seeks you always I love your happy body, your rich, soft voice. Dusky butterfly, sweet and sure Like the wheat field, the sun, the poppy, and the water.
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