"'What is there hid in the heart of a rose, Mother-mine?' 'Ah, who knows, who knows, who knows? A man that died on a lonely hill May tell you perhaps, but none other will, Little child.' "'What does it take to make a rose, Mother-mine?' 'The God that died to make it knows. It takes the world's eternal wars, It takes the moon and all the stars, It takes the might of heaven and hell And the everlasting Love as well, Little child.'" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. And they heard the old tales over: "And 'See-Saw; Margery Daw,' we heard a rollicking shout, As the swing boats hurtled over our heads to the tune of the roundabout; And 'Little Boy Blue, come blow up your horn,' we heard the showmen cry, And 'Dickery Dock, I'm as good as a clock,' we heard the swings reply." Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. Then at last they found their little brother Peterkin in "The Babe of Bethlehem." And if this were not enough to make the reader see how completely and wholly and sympathetically Noyes understood the child heart, hear this word from his great soul: "Kind little eyes that I love, Eyes forgetful of mine, In a dream I am bending above Your sleep and you open and shine; And I know as my own grow blind With a lonely prayer for your sake, He will hear--even me--little eyes that were kind, God bless you, asleep or awake!" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. MANHOOD AND ITS VIGOR Virility like unto steel is the very mark of Noyes. But as this study of Childhood has shown, it is a virility touched with tenderness. As Bayard Taylor sings: "The bravest are the tenderest, The loving are the daring!" And this is Noyes. Noyes knew Manhood, he sang it, he challenged it too, he crowned it in "Drake"; he placed it a little lower than the gods. Hear this supreme word, enough to lift man to the skies: "Where, what a dreamer yet, in spite of all, Is man, that splendid visionary child Who sent his fairy beacon through the dusk!" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. This tribute to Marlow--how eaglelike it is! How suggestive of heights, and mountain peaks and blue skies and far-flung stars! "But he who dared the thunder-roll, Whose eagle-wings could soar, Buffeting down the clouds of night, To beat against the Light of Light, That great God-blinded eagle-soul, We shall not see him more!" Collected Poems by Alfred Noyes. Then he makes us one with all that is granite and flower and high and holy in "The Loom of the Years": "One with the flower of a day, one with the withered moon, One with the granite mountains that melt into the noon, One with the dream that triumphs beyond the light of the spheres, We come from the Loom of the Weaver, that weaves the Web of the years."