Edward: Child and Man

I saw thee, Edward, when thy baby cries
Sounded in mother's ears a swift alarm ;
I saw thee cradled on thy father's arm.
When he, with many smiles and many sighs,
Guess'd in the quick gleam of thy new wak'd eyes
The inward stirrings, not matured to thought,
Not broken to the curb of must and ought,
And yet instinct with all thy destinies.
I see thee now a far experienced man.
Who from late boyhood to the rear of youth
Hast seen in many lands new forms of truth,
And haply learn'd with foreign eye to scan
Old England's faults ; yet dost thou fondly love her,
And with a true friend's boldness, dost reprove her.