When Childhood Died

I can recall the day     When childhood died.     I had grown thin and tall     And eager-eyed.     Such a false happiness     Had seized me then;     A child, I saw myself     Man among men.     Now I see that I was     Ignorant, surprised,     As one for the surgeon's knife     Ansthetized.     So that I did not know     What loomed before,     Nor how, a child, I became     A child no more.     The world's sharpened knife     Cut round my heart;     Then something was taken     And flung apart.     I did not, could not know     What had been done.     Under some evil drag     I lived as one     At home in the seeming world;     Then slowly came     Through years and years to myself     And was no more the same.     I know now an ill thing was done     To a young child     By the world's wary knife     Maimed and defiled.     I can recall the day     Almost without anger or pain,     When childhood did not die     But was slain.