Living
Riddle 34
From At the Sign of the Sphinx (Second Series)
Living
Once I passed through my whole. ’T was beautiful;
’T was like a fairy-land, so gay, so glad,
So free from care and sorrow. For a time
I staid. Yet eagerly desired the day
When I might leave its simple joys. Ah me,
If but I might return to them again!
My first is always in my whole. Sometimes
My first is in my last. When, long ago,
Red Ridinghood on kindly errand bent,
Walked to her grandam’s cot across the wood,
My last was on my first.
✦ ✦ ✦
Codex Note
Answer: CHILDHOOD
Cite this poem
MLA
Wells, Carolyn. “Riddle 34.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wells_c/151/.
Chicago
Wells, Carolyn. “Riddle 34.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wells_c/151/.
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